Final Call editor-in-chief Naba’a Muhammad has died, according to the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) of which the publication was a member.

In a notice sent June 7, NNPA President and CEO Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. informed publishers of Muhammad’s transition on June 6.

“We all are very saddened to notify you about the passing last evening of Naba’a Muhammad, the distinguished Editor of the Final Call newspaper,” Chavis wrote.

The Final Call is the official communications organ of the Nation of Islam. Founded in the basement of Minister Louis Farrakhan’s South Chicago home in 1979, the publication has styled itself as an alternative to mainstream, corporate media, offering unflinching, sometimes controversial coverage of national and international issues. Muhammad has led the newsroom since 2009.

“In Chicago, across the nation, and throughout the world, Brother Naba’a Muhammad was a stalwart journalist-defender and representative of the Black Press of America,” Chavis wrote. “Brother Naba’a, as a devoted follower of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and an active member of the Nation of Islam, embodied what it means to be a freedom-fighting editor and journalist.”

A native of Baltimore, Md., Muhammad attended Walbrook High School and studied English-journalism at Morgan State University. He later called Chicago his home.

Formerly Richard B. Muhammad, he was given the Islamic holy name “Naba’a Muhammad” in February 2020 in Detroit by Minister Farrakhan.

A media professional for almost four decades, Muhammad was the founder of Straight Words Media and straightwords.com and host of a weekly news and analysis podcast, “Straight Words With Naba’a Richard Muhammad, Bj Murphy and James G. Muhammad,” which debuted May 9, 2023, on WVON AM 1690 Black Talk Radio Chicago, according to his LinkedIn profile. The award-winning journalist also traveled internationally and covered uprisings such as those in Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere after the deaths of Mike Brown and in Baltimore after the police killing of Freddie Gray.

As a consultant and communications director, Muhammad worked with national nonprofits such as LISC community development corp, Chicago Rehab Network, Veterans for Peace, National People’s Action, Interfaith Worker Justice, the Environmental Leadership Project, and others. He also played significant roles in the 1995 Million Man March, its anniversary commemorations, mobilizations for Hurricane Katrina survivors, and other major events.

He conducted training sessions and presented at national conferences on worker rights, community housing and banking issues, racial justice and independent publishing – but also spoke in humbler locales such as local schools, colleges, jails and street corners.

Muhammad’s words and photographs are immortalized in the “Million Man March/Day of Absence, A Commemorative Anthology.” His first book, “Dopebusters: Farrakhan Fanatics Or Saviours? The True Story of the D.C. Crack Cocaine Crisis and Successful Muslim Anti-Drug Patrols” was published in 2018.