Name: Hakeem Muhammad

Recipient Year: 2019

Major: Law

Description: Hakeem Muhammad grew up on the Southside of Chicago in a neighborhood nicknamed “Chiraq” due to the high prevalence of gang warfare. He has worked to quell the gang violence in Chicago and works to raise awareness of the role of institutional racism.Muhammad is a Public Interest law scholar and graduate of Northeastern University Law School. He assisted African-American Muslim prisoners in a variety of human rights cases. Muhammad also provided his legal skills to the People’s Law Firm in Chicago. Muhammad founded the Black Dawah Network, that does Islamic Outreach to the most impoverished inner-city Black communities in the United States. His organization has distributed free copies of The Autobiography of Malcolm X in his former neighborhood. Muhammad, is also the author of the book “To Be Young, Black and Oppressed in Chicago” that explores the rise of Drill Rap in Chicago and how this music form articulates the frustrations of those who continue to face institutional racism in a post-Jim Crow America.

School Name: Northeastern University

Sponsor: Ghulam and Arifa Azad Family Scholarship