Farrakhan calling for Millions More March

Yawu Miller

In 1995, when Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan called for the Million Man March, naysayers black and white publicly doubted whether he would gather even 500,000 people in Washington, D.C.

Drawing a crowd estimated at nearly two million, Farrakhan defied his critics with the largest-ever gathering of black men in the nation’s capital. Now, ten years later, Farrakhan is again issuing a call to action. This time, it’s not just men and not just blacks.

Farrakhan’s Millions More March is aimed at blacks, Latinos and Native Americans as well as working class whites. His call to action is a call to reclaim the country from what he says is a decline.

“The state of the nation has deteriorated,” he told reporters in a press conference in the organization’s Grove Hall mosque, citing the war against Iraq, the off-shoring of jobs and the increasing income gap in the country.

“The Millions More Movement is a movement designed to take responsibility to change the harsh reality in this country,” he said.

Farrakhan says his movement is the first that would bring a large number of blacks together with such a diverse array of people. The gathering, scheduled for October 14 through 16, will commemorate the 1995 Million Man March as well as promote a new agenda.

Farrakhan said the gathering will bring together activists and intellectuals to develop long range plan for improving the educational, political and social development of people of color.

Educational experts will determine what educational policies are needed for the advancement of black children. The movement will also convene business leaders to strategize ways to help people of color accumulate wealth.

“For the first time in the history of black people in the United States, members of every spectrum of black thought and ideology will gather,” he told reporters.

“This unprecedented gathering of black leadership says black people have come to the point where our unity and the pooling of our resources is the only thing we have not tried, but it’s the only thing that will take us out of the wretched condition we are in.”

The Millions More Movement will advocate for an end to police brutality and police profiling, inadequate health care and education and advocate for reparations for black people.

Farrakhan visited Boston as part of a multi-city tour aimed at building support for the mobilization. In Boston, he met with local clergy, elected officials and community activists.

Nationally, he has received support from organizations including the Congressional Black Caucus, the New Black Panther Party and the Progressive National Black Baptist Convention. The fiery orator has drawn criticism from the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations. National ADL President Abraham Foxman has condemned the effort, citing what he said was Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism.

Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons wrote a public rebuttal to Foxman’s denunciation, calling on “all people of goodwill” to support the demonstration.

While Farrakhan is calling for a concrete agenda to come out of the conference, he also emphasized that the event could have a spiritual impact on the people.

He cited the story of a former pimp whom comedian Steve Harvey brought to the 1995 Million Man March. Harvey later brought a man to Farrakhan’s Michigan residence.

“When he came to me with Steve Harvey, he said the message hit home,” Farrakhan said. He is not abusing women now. He is working to loose women from other men who abuse them.”

After his press conference, Farrakhan attended an evening meeting at Prince Hall where he brought his message of the march to the broader community. There he cautioned audience members that the black community is in dire condition and said the march is an effort to halt the decline of the African American community.

“If we don’t do it now, we probably will be destroyed within the next 10-20 years, at this rate we are marching to the tune of death,” he said. “There was never a time in our history when we turned against each other the way blacks do today.

“Even during the days of slavery, we never killed each other. But today in every city and every town, black men kill black men… until every funeral parlor is doing good business.”

For more information on the march, visit the web page: www.millionsmoremovement.com, or call 1-866 WE MARCH.

(Jeremy Schwab contributed to this report.)