At busy crossroads, Nation of Islam member peddles bean pies a ritual going ...

A yellow school bus with only a few children onboard pulled up to the curb as the driver swung open the door: "Just a regular."

Muhammad, dressed in a slightly rumpled black suit and a navy bow tie, bounded up the bus steps and handed him a pie.

"My credit good?" the driver said, somewhere between a question and a statement.

"Yeah," Muhammad said as he waved him off.

If you sell enough bean pies, you learn a little about life in South Los Angeles - like how to size up a man if he's good for a $7 pie.

On this northwest corner, peddlers - hawking incense, hot dogs or salvation - run the pavement. Few, however, have lasted as long as Brian Muhammad, 42.

He's been selling bean pies for 11 years here at one of the busiest and most sought-after intersections for those with something to market. Before him there was Louis Muhammad, who had sold bean pies for years before he was run over by a driver who had suffered a heart attack.

Muhammad has had a few close scrapes himself - to be expected when his job entails dashing between idling vehicles. He's learned to always keep an eye out for oncoming traffic, even as he watches for drivers in old vehicles.

Beat-up cars mean good customers. "Because they got no car notes, the car is paid off," Muhammad said. "The ones in the shiny new cars, they're sweating because they have the car notes, they got no extra money. It's economics, man."

Muhammad is part of a Nation of Islam tradition that dates back decades. On any given day, on street corners in cities such as Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and New York, members - clean-cut and dressed in suits and bow ties - can be found selling bean pies and the group's newspaper, the Final Call.

Here in Los Angeles, selling the pies fits in especially well with a transportation culture where motorists can buy virtually anything that can fit through their driver's side window.

Though the Nation of Islam is a vestige of the influential body it was in the 1950s and '60s, the bean pie has long transcended the religion.

"In the black community they know when they see the pink box, they associate it with bean pie, like the golden arch with McDonald's and the crown with Burger King," Muhammad said.

The pie dates to the 1930s, when the founder of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, told his followers to eschew pork and unhealthy starches like corn bread and adhere to a healthful diet, with a particular focus on the navy bean. Muslims created the bean pie in part as a healthier substitute for the sweet potato pie.

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