Your Black Muslim Bakery
Your Black Muslim BakeryYour Black Muslim Bakery was a chain of bakeries opened by Yusuf Bey in 1968 in Santa Barbara, California, and relocated to Oakland in 1971. A power broker at the center of a local community, it was held out as a model of African American economic self-sufficiency. However, it was later linked to widespread physical and sexual abuse, intimidation, welfare fraud, and murder. After Bey's death in 2003, the bakery fell into debt and declared bankruptcy in October 2006. In August 2007, in connection with investigations into the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey and a number of other crimes, police conducted a massive raid on the company's San Pablo Avenue bakery. A concurrent health inspection resulted in its closure. Later that day a court ordered the pending reorganization converted into a liquidation bankruptcy.
Yusuf Bey came to Oakland from Texas with his family as a student in the early 1950s. He later opened cosmetology beauty salons in the area and in southern California, before going into the bakery business. After discovering the teachings of Elijah Muhammed in the 1960s, Bey converted to the Nation of Islam in 1964, and founded the "Islamic" bakery in Santa Barbara in 1968. The group was not affiliated with the Nation of Islam, though similarities were evident. Nation of Islam minister Keith Muhammad, of East Oakland's Muhammad Mosque #26, stated that the two organizations are distinct and separate.
The baked goods Bey sold were prepared in accordance with the Qur'an, and were free of refined sugar and preservatives. Some items sold were not in accordance with Elijah Muhammad's dietary books: How to Eat to Live, books one and two, as some items contained coconut, which, like other nuts, is considered unfit for human consumption by Elijah Muhammad. Bey named the business Your Black Muslim Bakery on the personal recommendation of his spiritual guide, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. In 1971, Bey moved the bakery to Oakland. By 1974 it was the "largest Bay Area bakery specializing exclusively in natural food products", with over 6,000 loaves of bread and over 300 cakes per week sold at 150 stores.
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