Son’s Muslim faith divides one black family

Joshua Blackwell finally visited his mother in North Carolina this summer and they talked about his conversion to Islam. The conversation didn’t go well.

Margaret Blackwell had returned at midnight from her factory job making surgical bandages. Joshua, a D.C. public school teacher, was still up. She pulled out her Bible. He opened his Koran. They tried to reach each other but ended up doing battle. It was 1 John and Surah 31, verses and ayats. It was only those washed in the blood of the risen Christ, and the Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings be upon him, until after 2 a.m.

And later that morning, they resumed.

“You ever had somebody die in your family?” Margaret Blackwell, 58, asked a reporter quietly. Her hair was pulled into a neat bun, and her face was smooth and unlined. She sat in a straight-backed armchair in the living room of her two-bedroom apartment and stared pensively toward the floor. Big Wheel Gospel — 1510 AM — played softly in the background. She tapped her foot quickly up and down. “That’s how it felt.”

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