By: Family
Born Betsy Ross on November 26, 1935, in Boston, Massachusetts — was a woman of uncommon grace, quiet strength, and boundless devotion. Raised in Boston’s African American community during the shadow of the Great Depression, she met Louis Eu- gene Walcott as teenage sweethearts, forging a bond that would endure for more than seven decades. They married on September 12, 1953, when Louis was a college student and aspiring calypso singer at Winston-Salem Teachers College in North Carolina. When complications arose during her first pregnancy, he left college in his senior year to care for her — a testament to the love and mutual sacrifice at the heart of their life together.
In 1955, both Betsy and Louis attended a Saviors’ Day address by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, and their lives were transformed. Upon joining the NOI, Betsy took the Islamic name Khadijah — honoring the first wife of Prophet Muhammad — and immersed herself in the Muslim Girls Training and General Civilization Class in New York City, studying alongside Sister Betty Shabazz and trained directly by Elijah Muhammad himself. She rose quickly as an eager and dedicated student. When Minister Farrakhan was appointed minister of Boston’s Temple No. 11, the couple labored together to build the New England region into one of the NOI’s strongest communities.
ey relocated to New York City’s Mosque No. 7 in 1965, then to Chicago by 1975. When Minister Farrakhan began rebuilding the Nation of Islam in 1977, Khadijah became its first treasurer and secretary — hosting study group meetings from
