How bean pie is a symbol of liberation for many Black Muslims

How bean pie is a symbol of liberation for many Black Muslims

“Man, I’m out here selling bean pies.”

James 40X’s voice crackled through the phone, as if his whole life was on the move. I told him I’d meet him right away, near Supreme Bean Pie’s bakery, at the Nation of Islam’s headquarters in the Mosque Maryam compound.

In the parking lot, 40X cut a dashing figure in a striped olive suit, bow tie, hat and sunglasses. Like the bean pie man of legend, he was classically dapper and charismatic, selling a nutritious dessert as a side to a main course of Black liberation.

Within 10 minutes of handing me pies and papers, he was on the road again. I had what I needed, sure, but I wanted more.

In Black communities around America, the bean pie is a symbol of the varied Muslim communities that emerged from the Nation of Islam’s nearly 100-year history in the United States. For many, the dessert stands for Black pride and healthy eating. Much of its fame comes from charismatic street vendors such as 40X, who spread the teachings of the late Minister Elijah Muhammad on city corners and at markets and fairs; those teachings include that the navy bean is a kind of superfood.

In conversations with Black elders, community historians, restaurateurs, religious leaders, academics and one bean pie man in a suit and bow tie, I’ve learned a small part of how the South Side of Chicago holds the keys to the complex, core histories encoded within the bean pie. Despite unusually good access to the Nation of Islam and local community historians, much of the history was still difficult to verify. But it’s clear Chicago has some of the best claims to being the historic capital of the bean pie in the United States.

Bean pie is intermittently available in other major cities across the country, but it’s become more scarce on the street since Elijah Muhammad’s death. Supreme Bean Pie has been ramping up efforts, shipping nationally and working with regional distributors. Though bean pie is sold mostly by Nation of Islam members who follow Minister Louis Farrakhan, there are also Black Sunni Muslims who bake them and keep the legacy alive.

Bean pie can be found at a few culinary institutions in Chicago. There’s Supreme Bean Pie in the South Shore neighborhood, Imani’s Original Bean Pies and, perhaps most uniquely, Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream in the Bronzeville neighborhood and south suburban Olympia Fields. Paradise Desserts also returned this winter after a hiatus, now operating out of The Good Life Soul Food Cafe.

The pie typically has a golden brown top, warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, and a custard filling firm enough to eat by hand. All the bean pie-makers stress their usage of healthy, minimally processed ingredients and tout the dietary benefits of the navy bean.

With bean pie, history is always on the menu

The Nation of Islam was founded by the enigmatic Wallace Fard Muhammad in Detroit in the 1930s; after his disappearance, Fard’s teachings were continued and expanded on by his successor, Elijah Muhammad, who spent much of his life on the South Side of Chicago until his death in 1975. Afterward, his son, Warith Deen Mohammed, transitioned the Nation of Islam away from many of his father’s teachings to orthodox Islam with the Quran and Hadith as its basis. Farrakhan eventually split, readopting the Nation of Islam name and establishing a national headquarters at Mosque Maryam in the early ’80s.

Elijah Muhammad promoted many philosophies, including Black pride, do-for-self attitudes and health consciousness. He aimed to reconfigure Black Americans’ diets away from what Nation leaders saw as a deficient, damaging history of enslavement. The navy bean, also often prepared as a soup, is perhaps the most distinctive food of the Nation of Islam. Bean pie, with its fiber, protein and nutrition, acted as a replacement for sweet potato pie.

In two volumes of his book “How to Eat to Live,” Elijah Muhammad argued that “the great causes of our illnesses are not eating right and eating too often.” He advised eating only one meal a day and restricted many foods that were also considered forbidden by Muslims globally, including pork and alcohol. While its scientific basis has been challenged, community members compare some of his teachings to modern health practices that may have benefits, such as intermittent fasting or vegetarianism. Though Elijah Muhammad rejected beans in general, he held a special place for the navy bean.

“There’s this intimate connection between feeding people intellectually and feeding people physically,” said Dr. Donna Auston, anthropologist and senior program officer at Wenner-Gren Foundation. Speaking of historic and racialized health disparities, Auston said the Nation of Islam’s food programs were “a type of intervention, a very delicious one, that is intended to be part of a repertoire to address this whole list of concerns that are brought about by intentional and systemic racism.”

Auston said there are many competing claims about the baker who originated the bean pie, but what is known is the bean pie’s impact. Businesses that sold them infused fresh food and income into communities that needed both.

“The use now of ‘food deserts’ and ‘food apartheid’ — these are conceptual terms that have become common in modern scholarship in food studies — the Nation of Islam was on top of that many decades ago,” Auston said.

A bean pie sold by Imani Muhammad at the Go Green Community Fresh Market on West 63rd Street in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Author Tiffany Green-Abdullah, who works at the nonprofit Inner-City Muslim Action Network’s site in Atlanta, grew up in Chicago. Her book, “The Bean Pie: A Remembering of Our Family’s Faith, Fortitude & Forgiveness,” is a memoir that in part documents her family’s claim to being originators of the dessert.

According to the story, her mother worked as a waitress at one of Chicago’s Shabazz food businesses and frequently brought her great-aunt’s bean pie to work for a snack. The restaurant manager asked for the recipe and it became part of the menu. Shabazz was advertised frequently in Nation publications and so it introduced many to the pie.

Others claim to be behind the pie, including a Detroiter named Mary Almanza and Fard Muhammad himself. A 1976 Chicago Tribune article featured Lana Shabazz, boxer Muhammad Ali’s personal chef, and her claim that she created the pie for the Shabazz Bakery, a name that has been shared by many Black Muslim businesses over the years. Recipes for bean pie also can be found in cookbooks dating back to the late 1800s.

Most Chicago sources believe the pie started popping up at businesses in the city as Black cultural pride and entrepreneurialism grew in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“Many of us were provided jobs in those businesses. I had my first job with the Nation at Shabazz,” said Nuri Madina, who is now an environmental consultant. Madina was not a professional baker and stayed for a year. In 1975, Madina managed Salaam restaurant with a partner, serving Shabazz bean pie and other foods for two years until it closed.

The period after Elijah Muhammad’s death required some rebuilding — many of the Chicago bean pie institutions closed. Others kept the pie alive through oral history and community baking.

“Bean pie is a grassroots expression of the community of the Nation of Islam,” said Sultan Muhammad, resident imam of Mosque Maryam. “Although we have a Nation recipe, many take much pride in making their own recipes.”

Michael Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam, recently reopened Paradise Desserts, which he runs with his wife, Nneka Muhammad. He said many of his customers had never heard of bean pie before him.

Muhammad inherited his recipe from a Sister Angela in North Carolina, who introduced him to the best bean pie he’d ever had. His pie has a smooth texture and well-balanced spicing. He also offers versions of bean pie with whipped cream cheese and fruit.

“The bean pie is an American icon,” Green-Abdullah said. She and many others have said it’s one of the only foods that can truly be called Muslim American.

Bean pie is uniquely Black, uniquely Muslim and uniquely American. That’s what makes the history so powerful to Green-Abdullah and worth preserving.

Today’s pies, with a side of ice cream

Supreme Bean Pie claims to be the “original,” a new iteration of Shabazz Bakeries. The closing of Shabazz led to a period of change for the bean pie, but many new institutions arose to carry on the torch.

Yahya Muhammad, co-owner of Shawn Michelle’s, said bean pie is well-known among their South Side customers, but they’ve also introduced it to a new generation of fans by putting it in their ice cream. The artisanal ice cream shop has sold the Taste of Heaven Bean Pie flavor as a seasonal item since 1998. Two years ago, the shop debuted a new bean pie flavor, Sajdah Exquisite Sweet Custard Pie. Both are made from actual Supreme Bean Pie but have completely differing expressions of the iconic dish.

“The bean pie is part of my world,” said Yahya Muhammad, his voice booming through the Bronzeville location of Shawn Michelle’s, which is named after his late sister. “When you’re experiencing Shawn Michelle’s, you’re experiencing my life. You’re experiencing the historical cultural contributions of the Black community.”

Yahya Muhammad, owner of Shawn Michelle's Homemade Ice Cream parlor in Chicago. The shop offers two different Bean Pie ice cream flavors. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Yahya Muhammad, owner of Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream parlor in Chicago, is seen at his shop on Aug. 6, 2024. The shop offers two Bean Pie ice cream flavors. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Shawn Michelle's Homemade Ice Cream parlor in Chicago offers two different Bean Pie ice cream flavors, Taste of Heaven, at left, and Sajah. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream parlor in Chicago offers two bean pie ice cream flavors, Taste of Heaven, left, and Sajdah. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Sitting next to him were Elijah Bey, manager of Supreme Bean Pie, and Sajdah Wendy Muhammad, who works on preserving historical Nation of Islam sites at the Elijah Muhammad House Museum. Sajdah is also the namesake of the second bean pie flavor.

According to Sajdah Wendy Muhammad, the bean pie was, at its peak, sold at Jewel-Osco’s in Chicago. A 1977 Chicago Tribune article supports the claim, saying it’s available in many markets. Imani’s Original Bean Pies also were once sold at Whole Foods.

“When people saw that bean pie in the store, it represented more than just an alternative to sweet potato pie,” said Sajdah Wendy Muhammad. “It represented a movement that was designed to liberate us and free us.”

Bey said his customers tell him bean pie reminds them of red bean paste-based desserts often found in Asian cuisine.

Yahya Muhammad calls Taste of Heaven ice cream a “festive flavor” infused with the flavor of the bean pie and textured with bite-size pieces of actual pie. The natural buttery taste and texture of the crust is maintained despite the freeze. Meanwhile, Sajdah Exquisite Sweet Custard is a straightforward creamy ice cream with no mix-ins that evokes bean pie right on the palette.

Yahya Muhammad said he hopes to keep the two flavors as permanent fixtures on the menu. He recommends eating them separately, as each is unique.

Supreme’s bean pies are also available at Shawn Michelle’s as a slice or whole pie if, say, an adventurous eater would want to try bean pie topped with bean pie ice cream. Bean pie a la bean pie.

“For us, navy beans are a staple in Muslim communities,” said Imani Muhammad, the baker and namesake of Imani’s Original Bean Pies and Fine Foods. “We were eating bean soup almost daily.”

A successful school project and home-cooking experiment in the mid-2000s led her to start her own business based around bean pie. Her pies are sold online and in Chicago markets, but she recently returned to selling in-person at the Quarry Event Center. Her personal and artisanal take on the pie has gained her many fans in the food world.

Imani Muhammad sells bean pies at the Go Green Community Fresh Market on W. 63rd Street in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Imani Muhammad sells bean pies at the Go Green Community Fresh Market on West 63rd Street in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Keeping up with customer requests, Imani Muhammad sells vegan bean pies as well, eschewing egg replacements and favoring unprocessed items to create a different take. She also has variations with fruits such as apple, peach or blueberry.

“We want to make our communities sustainable,” Imani Muhammad said. She was on the steering committee for the Go Green Community Fresh Market, which sells her pies and was designed by the nonprofit Inner-City Muslim Action Network to address systemic food inequalities in the Englewood nieghborhood. “We don’t want to have to travel far to make healthy choices.”

In many ways, IMAN echoes the historical American Muslim idea of combating food apartheid in Black communities by giving access to fresh food and nutritional information.

“We’re intentional about promoting the bean pie that is very indigenous to the American Muslim experience,” said Sana Syed, chief of growth and strategy at IMAN. “We see ourselves as standing on the shoulders of all those liberation movements that were so important to the African American Muslim experience. The bean pie is so central to that story.”

The papers and the pie man

My first time at Supreme Bean Pie, I was waved in by security guards and placed an order at the front of the locked doors of the Muhammad University of Islam, where the bakery is located. The security is friendly, but you require an escort and an invitation to explore, as food writer Mike Sula and food historian Peter Engler found out when Sula wrote about their journey for bean pie for the Chicago Reader in 2013. However, after meeting Bey and others in the Nation of Islam, I was warmly welcomed into services at Mosque Maryam; my request for a tour of the bakery is still pending.

Bey and 40X noted that Supreme’s pie sales are mostly about supporting the Muhammad University of Islam, which is pre-K through 12th grade, and offers an “independent Black education.”

Bey said Supreme is trying many new methods to promote bean pie and wants to get the pie back on supermarket shelves. At a Sunday service at Mosque Maryam, one of the announcements ending the service was: “Supreme Bean Pie, nationwide delivery. Available for purchase through Uber Eats.”

James 40X, left, jokes with Wilbur Muhammad after delivering bean pies for a funeral repass in Chicago on Nov. 23, 2024. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
James 40X, left, jokes with Wilbur Muhammad after delivering bean pies for a funeral repass in Chicago on Nov. 23, 2024. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

The old-school exposure to bean pie is the man on the street selling it in a suit and bow tie. I asked many South Side residents if this still existed. It felt like chasing a mirage — perhaps on 79th Street and Stony Island Avenue on Saturdays, perhaps over on 83rd Street. Then one day, I got that call from James 40X.

We met in person and spoke on the phone several times. I wondered if the Nation still had a policy of focusing on Black customers.

“We’re not prejudiced against selling to anyone,” 40X said.

“It’s a universal pie, but started in the Black community,” Bey said.

40X is an independent distributor who buys in bulk from Supreme and then redistributes the pies on his own. He’s developed his own fans. He began selling in 2010, but he stresses that the Final Call, the Nation of Islam’s official newspaper, is the priority, what he called the “No. 1 program.” He’s been selling those on and off since 1975, back when they were called Muhammad Speaks.

40X often leaves quickly, offering rides to community members and turning to other duties helping out his family and Muslim community. But as far as I’ve seen, he’s always dressed in a crisp tailored outfit.

The legend of the bean pie man selling health and wisdom lives on.

The Supreme Bean Pie, 7351 S. Stony Island Ave., thesupremebeanpie.com
Imani’s Original Bean Pies, at The Quarry Event Center, 2423 E. 75th St., 773-900-7822, imanisoriginals.com
Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream, 46 E. 47th St., 773-675-4032 Option #1 and 3252 Vollmer Road, Olympia Fields, 773-675-4032 Option #2, shawnmichelles.com
Paradise Desserts, 11226 S. Halsted St., 773-678-3248, instagram.com/paradisedessertsllc

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