Oral History Interview with Sabreen Sharrief on October 13, 2020
Title
Oral History Interview with Sabreen Sharrief on October 13, 2020
Creator
Dream Storytelling Project Team
Date
2021
Description
Oral history interview with Sabreen Sharrief conducted by Zainab Yousif-Ahmad on October 13, 2020. Interview written by Dr. Alisa Perkins (Research Director) and Zainab Yousif-Ahmad. Sabreen Sharrief was born in 1948 in the metro Detroit city of Inkster, Michigan, into a family that originally hailed from Jackson, Mississippi. Sharrief’s great-grandfather was an early educator for enslaved African-American children, teaching at an institution that would later become Jackson’s Tougaloo College. In 1947, Sharrief’s father established Big Four Black and White Cabs Co in Inkster, which is currently in its fourth generation of family ownership. After graduating from Inkster High School, Sharrief began attending nursing school. Sharrief reverted from Christianity to Islam in 1972 and began attending Temple No. 1. Several years later, she transitioned to Sunni Islam under the leadership of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. In 2010, Sharrief retired from a fifty-year-long career in nursing and moved back to her familial home in Mississippi. There, she serves on the governing board of her mosque, and, for more than ten years, has volunteered with the mosque’s prison outreach, ministering to female inmates in Mississippi. Additionally, Sharrief volunteers at the International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson, Mississippi. In the interview, Sharrief fondly remembers growing up in Inkster, reflecting on the city’s close-knit African-American community and Black-owned businesses. She elaborates on how she encourages the incarcerated women she works with to gain strength and self-esteem through religious study and self-love. Further, Sharrief discusses her work as a tour guide for the International Museum of Muslim cultures, which allows her to offer public education about historically under-represented societies.
Subject
African-American community
African-American history
African-American Muslims
Imam Nadir Ahmad
Muhammad Ali
Allen's Supermarket
Ann Arbor
Arabic language education
Atlanta
Auto mechanic
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
Baptist Christianity
Bean cream ice cream
Big Four Black & White Cab Co
Black Panther Party
Black-owned business
Boblo Island Amusement Park
Cab company
California
Canada
Cardboard City
Central Michigan University
Chicago
Cobo Hall
Community building
Community development
Conscientious objector
Conversion to Islam
COVID-19 pandemic
Dawah
Detroit
Detroit Princess Riverboat
Dispatching
Early African-American educators
Education
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz
Factories
Factory work
Family business
Family reunion
Farming
Minister Louis Farrakhan
Fasting
Fasting in prison
Fish restaurant
Georgia
Habitat for Humanity
Hajj
Halal
Hamtramck
Historic Masjid Wali Muhammad (HMWM)
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
Housing construction
Houston
Incarcerated women
Inkster
Inkster High School
Inkster mosque
Interfaith museum
Intergenerational relations
International Museum of Muslim Cultures
Interracial Muslim community
Islam
Islam in America
Islam in prison
Islamic education abroad
Islamic parochial school
Jackson
Kinship
Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)
Linwood Street
Philbert Little
Los Angeles
Malcolm X
Master mechanic
Memphis
Memphis prisons
Michigan
Midwifery
Military honors
Mississippi
Mississippi State Penitentiary
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed
Mosque
Mosque governing board
Motherhood
‘Muhammad Speaks'
Clara Muhammad
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
Muslims
Muslim Americans
Muslim Center Mosque and Community Center
Muslim chaplain
Muslim Girls Training (MGT)
‘Muslim Journal'
Muslim summer camp
Muslim women's community
Muslim-owned business
Myles Cemetery
Nation of Islam (NOI)
Neighborhood relations
New Medinah Islamic Community
Nurse
Nursing school
Ohio
Abdul Aziz Omar
Orthodox Christianity
Parchman Farm
Philbert X
Prison chaplain
Prison ministry
Prophet Muhammad
Qur'an
Qur'an classes
Ramadan
Representing Islam
Retirement
Reversion to Islam
Sharecropping
Shaw College
Sister Clara Muhammad Schools
Summerall
TCF Center
Teacher
Tennessee
Texas
The Great Migration
Tougaloo College
Trans-Atlantic slave trade
Union street
United States Army
United States Senate
University of Islam
University of Southern California (USC)
Venice Beach
Veterans
Veterans Affairs (VA)
Veterans Affairs Hospital (VA Hospital)
Washington D.C
Wayne County Community College
Women's roles in Islam
African American Studies
Africana Studies
American Studies
Civic and Community Engagement
Digital Humanities
Inequality and Stratification
Islamic Studies
Museum Studies
Nonprofit Administration and Management
Politics and Social Change
Race and Ethnicity
Religion
Urban Studies and Planning
Source
Michigan Service Hub
Language
English
Relation
Type
text
References
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dream-storytelling-interviews/38
Collection
Citation
Dream Storytelling Project Team, “Oral History Interview with Sabreen Sharrief on October 13, 2020,” Center for Knit and Crochet Digital Repository, accessed October 14, 2026, https://digital.centerforknitandcrochet.org/items/show/34026.
Added by Rebecca Keyel
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