Birth: December 10, 1892 — Alabama
Death: December 15, 1984 — Chicago, Illinois
Known as: “The Guardian” of the MSTA
Organization: Moorish Science Temple of America, Temple No. 1, Chicago
- Wife of Edward Mealy El — the 1st Supreme Grand Sheik and Chairman of the Moorish Science Temple of America, appointed directly by Noble Drew Ali in 1928
- She guarded every piece of correspondence ever received regarding Noble Drew Ali, including letters written in his own handwriting
Sis. Delia Mealy El was pivotal in the succession of Noble Drew Ali’s movement, records and lineage. Without her, none of it survives.
Born in Alabama, Brought to the Movement
Sister Delia Mealy El was born on December 10, 1892, in Alabama.
She married Brother Edward Mealy El, who entered the Moorish Science Temple of America on January 1, 1927. By October 1928, at the First Annual National Convention of the MSTA, Noble Drew Ali appointed him Supreme Grand Sheik and Chairman — the highest office in the movement.
Illness took him from Chicago in his final years. He passed away on in late 1934.
During Bro. Mealy El’s decline, MSTA’s records fell in Sis Mealy El’s possession.
What came next would test everything…
The Woman Who Would Not Break
With the death of her husband — the current Supreme Grand Sheik at that time — what followed was a succession crisis that tore through the movement.
Outside groups surfaced — men who had never been designated by Drew Ali, pressing claims over the Temples and over the founding records. The documents Delia now held were not just historical — they were proof.
Protecting them meant protecting the movement’s legitimacy.
When pressured to release Drew Ali’s records, the answer was “no.” It remained “no.”
Outside groups came for the records. She refused…
First hand accounts from Sister Patricia Newton El states Sister Mealy El was even arrested for that for not initially giving up the records.
Even after being jailed — Sister Delia Mealy El still refused to give up the archives…
The court ruled in her favor and the records remained in her custody.
She was said to have kept them in a large safe in her closet and held Temple meetings under the same roof.
Every piece of correspondence she received about the Temple or Noble Drew Ali she preserved — letters addressed to him, letters written in his hand. Not one was discarded.
The children in her circle understood that the closet was off limits…
Half a Century of Guarding
Sis. Mealy El guarded Noble Drew Ali’s records through the succession turbulence of the 1930s.
Through the court challenges that followed.
Through the decades when the MSTA closed its doors against a world that had already tried to take everything.
When members of her community were finally allowed to hold those letters, the weight of them was more than physical…
Drew Ali’s handwriting.
The records of a movement that had been targeted, contested and nearly taken.
Still intact because she had refused…
A Legacy That Outlasted Everything
Sister Delia Mealy El passed away on December 15, 1984, in Chicago, at the age of 92.
She was buried four days later at Burr Oak Cemetery in Worth, Illinois.
The relics that outside groups tried to seize and that time itself tried to erase did not disappear.
A woman from Alabama kept it in a safe in her closet in Chicago and guarded it there for half a century.
Temple No. 1 of the Moorish Science Temple of America — still holds Noble Drew Ali’s records to this day.
All so have the artifacts and proof of your lost roots.
And when the time comes — you’ll be ready to unlock your true ancestry…