1977 Washington, D.C., attack and hostage taking

The leader of the attack was Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, a former national secretary of the Nation of Islam. Khaalis was born Ernest McGhee in Indiana in 1921. Discharged from the U.S. Army on grounds of mental instability, he worked as a jazz drummer in New York City before converting to Islam and changing his name to Hamaas Khaalis. He became prominent in the ministries and schools of the Nation of Islam and was appointed its national secretary in the early 1950s. Khaalis split with the Nation of Islam in 1958 to found a rival Islamic organization, the Hanafi Movement. In 1968, he was arrested for attempted extortion but released on grounds of mental illness. In 1972, Hamaas published an open letter attacking the leadership and beliefs of the Nation of Islam. A year later, five men broke into Khaalis' Washington, D.C., home and murdered five of his children, his nine-day-old grandson and another man. == Building takeovers ==

On March 9, 1977, seven members of Khaalis' group burst into the headquarters of B'nai B'rith at 1640 Rhode Island Ave N.W. in downtown Washington, south of Khaalis' headquarters at 7700 16th Street NW, and took over 100 hostages. Less than an hour later, three men entered the Islamic Center of Washington, and took eleven hostages. At 2:20 pm, two Hanafis entered the District Building, three blocks from the White House. They went to the fifth floor looking for important people to take hostage. When an elevator opened, the hostage-takers thought they were under attack and fired, killing Maurice Williams, a reporter for WHUR-FM radio, and mortally wounding D.C. Protective Services Division Police Officer Mack Cantrell, who died in the hospital a few days later of a heart attack. Then-councilman and future four-term D.C. mayor Marion Barry walked into the hallway after hearing a commotion and was struck by a ricocheting shotgun pellet, which lodged just above his heart. Barry was later extracted from the building and rushed to a hospital. Two others were injured. Over the course of the siege, Khaalis "denounced the Jewish judge who had presided at the trial of his family's killers", repeatedly alleging that "the Jews control the courts and the press". == Demands ==

Khaalis and the Hanafis wanted those convicted for the 1973 murders, as well as those convicted for killing Malcolm X, handed over to their custody, presumably for execution. == Negotiations and resolution ==

L. Douglas Heck and Rudy Giuliani had organized a team within the United States Department of Justice aimed at "combating terrorism". Although they claimed that DC police would handle the attacks, they soon brought in two intelligence operatives, Steve Pieczenik and Robert Blum. == Aftermath ==

Khaalis died at the Federal Correctional Complex Prison in Butner, North Carolina, on November 13, 2003. Marion Barry recovered from his wounds and was later elected mayor. In 2007, the fifth floor press room at the Wilson Building was named for the slain reporter, Maurice Williams. Abdul Muzikir, who shot and killed Williams, was sentenced to 70 years in prison and released in 2022. ==In popular culture==

John W. King wrote about the Hanafi siege in his book, The Breeding of Contempt. The book chronicles the siege and his family's becoming the first African American family in the Federal Witness Protection Program after the massacre of the Khaalis family. The siege is mentioned in Joni Mitchell's song "Otis And Marlena" from her 1977 album ''Don Juan's Reckless Daughter''. In the song, the title characters travel "for sun and fun / While Muslims stick up Washington". The Jonathan Leaf play The Caterers, which was produced Off Broadway in 2005, portrayed a modern-day version of the siege. Filmmaker David Simon reused an anecdote from the siege in his 2020 HBO drama The Plot Against America. Simon's father, Bernard Simon, was taken hostage in 1977 while serving as public relations director for B'nai B'rith. Tasked with finding food, he noticed that the bologna sandwiches provided by a nearby hotel were not kosher and would therefore be unacceptable to a number of the Jewish hostages. According to David Simon, his father joked, "Mayonnaise on white bread? I think they're trying to kill us." University of Richmond associate professor of journalism Shahan Mufti was awarded the 2020 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award for his manuscript of American Caliph, an account of the 1977 siege. The book was published in November 2022 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. == See also==