His union changed names many times, from the Negro Industrial and Clerical Alliance to the Afro-American Federation of Labor. Adam Clayton Powell briefly joined forces with him in labor protests and store boycotts, and broke ranks when his rhetoric moved beyond targeting whites and Jews to light-skinned black people. Violent clashes with rival black unions led to Hamid being arrested for stabbing Hammie Snipes, a former follower of Marcus Garvey who became a Communist labor union organizer; in October 1936, the courts sentenced him to 20 days in prison. Eventually, the courts barred Hamid from picketing, leading him to shift his focus to his mosque, the Universal Holy Temple of Tranquility; there, he dubbed himself a bishop, gaining the new nickname of "the Black Mufti." He would go on to open up his organization to Jewish members on August 31, 1937.
