By Nicholas Fandos, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Aishvarya Kavi
April 3, 2021
On the football field at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, Noah R. Green was No. 21, a dependable and good-natured, if soft-spoken, presence in the defensive backfield. Off the field, he was laser-focused on Black economic empowerment, counseling teammates on financial management and plotting a career helping close the racial wealth gap.
But by late March, after a bruising pandemic year that friends and family said left him isolated and mentally unmoored, Mr. Green’s life appeared increasingly to revolve around the Nation of Islam and its leader Louis Farrakhan, who has repeatedly promoted anti-Semitism.