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Jibreel Khazan (formerly Ezell Blair, Jr.)

Source: Radio One Digital / Radio One Digital

Jibrell Khazan is one of the original four who took part in the Woolworth sit-ins. He was born Ezell Blair Jr., in Greensboro, NC and graduated from Dudley High School. He received a B.S. I sociology from North Carolina A&T State University in 1963. While a student at A&T, Khazan was president of the junior class, the student government association, the campus NAACP and the Greensboro Congress for Racial Equality.

He found it nearly impossible to find a job in Greensboro because of his reputation as being one of the “four troublemakers,” and moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1965. New Bedford was special to him because it was where Frederick Douglas escaped to freedom. In 1968, he became a member of the New England Islamic Center and took on his present name, Jibreel Khazan.

Khazan works with developmentally disabled people for the CETA program in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He has also worked with the AFL/CIO Trade Council in Boston and Opportunities Industrialization Center and at the Rodman Job Corps Center. He is married to the former Lorraine France George of New Bedford. They have three children, one of whom graduated from North Carolina A&T State University.