"For nine months, I kept quiet because I saw that the good words that I spoke about this beautiful young man at our Saviours' Day convention and the way they were misused," Farrakhan said of Obama. "I decided it would be better for me to just be quiet rather than be drawn into the controversy that was swirling around his pastor, Father Pfleger, and others."

Farrakhan then added with a smile, "I feel freer today to say the things that are in my heart."

Farrakhan said Obama's historic win as the nation's first black president does not make the Nation of Islam -- which espouses self-reliance and black supremecy-- and civil rights organizations, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, irrelevant.

In 2006, a gravely ill Farrakhan ceded leadership of the movement to a board as he recuperated from complications due to prostate cancer. Months later, he quietly retook full responsibility.