In examining the background, education, and personalities of the nine most publicized and active ministers (including those from the six leading temples), one notes a distinct difference in the type of minister active prior to Malcolm's rise to prominence and the type which joined the cult after 1953 and rose to power, influenced and assisted by Malcolm.
Four of the nine ministers had been members of the NOI prior to 1953. Three of these became Muslims in the early 1940's, and each served a prison term for refusal to register for the Army draft. Each had been a Muslim for years before attaining the status of minister. The fourth of these ministers was Malcolm who, though a member of the NOI prior to 1953, had not yet risen to a leadership position. He had earlier been rejected for military service because of low mentality. Only one of these four ministers, whose average age is 43, completed high school.
The remaining five of the nine leading ministers joined the NOI after Malcolm had become a leading official in the cult. All five had been either influenced by Malcolm to join the cult or had received his assistance in their rather rapid rise to leadership positions. All had a high school or college education, one being a Ph. D. and former college professor. These younger men, whose average age is 33, are eager, ambitious, and definitely opportunistic. Two of these five men were former entertainers, one a comic and one the leader of a group of calypso singers. The former college professor had
