Edward Smith

“Like Malcolm and others who came to us to awaken our consciousness, the Moors also had a message that was so deep that you had to pay attention. This was back in the sixties, man! As more and more brothers turned to the Muslim religion for support and guidance, it turned out the Muslim leadership was just as bad as any of the leadership in Brownsville. One summer day, Lockley Bey was found thrown off a roof from the Atlantic Towers apartments.”
― Edward Smith, Imagine That!: The story of Ed Smith, one of the first African Americans to work in the design of video games and personal computers

“At thirteen, we had a visiting preacher come in from nearby Washington temple. He came with his mother, who was a popular preacher in her own right, but her son, who was the same age as me got up and preached. My mother immediately looked at me and said “You can be a preacher one day too”. As it turned out, that preacher was Al Sharpton and I never did enter the seminary. I would frequent the local Muslim mosque as well because, for me, religion was universal. The teachings of the Koran are so interconnected with the Bible that both are relevant in their teachings. I learned that religion is so universal that no matter what your sect, the underlying theme is the same: peace, love, respect for all men. This was the message I learned from Martin, Malcolm, and Gandhi. I would have gone to a Jewish Synagogue if I were invited. At the same time, I was fully aware that even in religion there are wars.”
― Edward Smith, Imagine That!: The story of Ed Smith, one of the first African Americans to work in the design of video games and personal computers