The Challenge, The Unity, The Triumph

30 Years Ago More Than a Million Men Marched

By Jihad Hassan Muhammad
Correspondent
Texas Metro News

Why a Million Man March?

Some wondered this very question as Black men were being organized city-by-city across America, leading to the momentous occasion of  October 16, 1995 in Washington D.C.

The reported 1.8 million Black men from every political, religious, socio-economic, educational, and professional aspect of the African American experience remain the stellar example of unity that history now records; yet there were those who were not united, and even promoted divisiveness toward the idea of a million Black men united.

As violence wreaked havoc in the inner cities and was often perpetuated by young Black men who may have had little education, opportunity, family structure except the gang set they belonged to; those who fit such description were even present at the Million Man March in pure unity.

Their presence thwarted the ever present mainstream media idea that Black men were killers, destroyers, absent fathers and perhaps worthy of annihilation.

The organizer and leader of the march, The Hon. Louis Farrakhan, was working to retrain and redeem Black people way before he was given the vision to bring a million men to Washington.

“I wholeheartedly believed in Min. Farrakhan’s vision for the Million Man March. It was vital to present Black men in a different light than the media portrayed them, which was dangerous or less than human,”  said Wana Alwalee, chair of the Dallas Local Organizing Committee for the Million Man March. “This characterization of Black men contributed to the perception that we could be gunned in the streets with zero accountability.”

Gang violence and crime was ever present in urban communities throughout America, he began the Stop the Killing Tours in the 1980s, leading into the early 1990s.

Upon the heels of a very violent winter in New York City, during Farrakhan’s last Stop the Killing Tour message in December, he promised the crowd that he would come back and talk to Black men only, and on January 24, 1994, he did.

While speaking to 12,000 Black men at the 369th Armory in Harlem, with another 7,000 listening via speakers outside, the Minister said he desired to bring a million Black men to Washington D.C., united and strong.

According to the Minister, those men would accept responsibility, atone to God, and reconcile their conflicts and differences.

“The spirit of unity was so strong among these Black men,” said Jamil Muhammad, who was then the minister of the Nation of Islam’s mosque in Baltimore, MD, one of the hundred plus cities in America under Farrakhan’s leadership.

“As the Minister spoke”, he continued, adding that the men were energized to work for peace in their neighborhoods and communities. “I was standing right by him when he spoke of bringing a million Black men to D.C., I felt that a divine time in our history was happening right before our eyes,”

Farrakhan began his All Men’s Meetings organizing and speaking to Black men all over America. He paid to rent arenas and stadiums so that he could invite the men in for free.

Being a controversial figure, the Minister, was mostly painted by White-operated, so-called mainstream media, and the government as a bigot, a racist, and anti-Semite, for his words of Black self determination, responsibility, and independence free of White control, which is a core belief of the Nation of Islam, popularized by its eternal leader, The Most Hon. Elijah Muhammad.

Farrakhan, like his mentor before him, Malcolm X, wore the title of anti-Semite bestowed by some in the Jewish community. Throughout history many Black leaders have been given the title at one time or another, whether it was Malcolm X, The Hon. Marcus Garvey, James Baldwin, Kwame Ture, (formerly Stokely Carmichael) or Angela Davis to name a few.

This idea fueled an effort that some said attempted to derail the March and its efforts, hoping that it resulted in an unsuccessful movement, or after its historic success sought to separate the message from its chief messenger, Farrakhan.

“For most whites, the Million Man March called by Minister Louis Farrakhan can only worsen race matters. For them, he not only embodies Black rage but also Black hatred and contempt for whites, Jews, women, gay men and lesbians.

Building on a long and diverse tradition of black nationalism — Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Queen Mother Moore, Malcolm X– Minister Farrakhan is white America’s worst nightmare, said Dr. Cornel West in his opinion piece in the New York Times, entitled “Why I’m Marching in Washington” days before the March, Oct 14, 1995.

Alwalee recalled how the media sowed discord among Black men and women, saying that the idea of the march was sexist to not include women. “Diane Ragsdale, then Dallas Deputy Mayor-Pro Tem, and so many other Black women helped to organize Black men to get to the march and myself understood the message of Min. Farrakhan to the men and how necessary for them so we didn’t mind not being invited, and we put all of our energy into helping,” said Alwalee. She recalls that in Dallas, the only media that covered the Million Man March was the Black press, saying the others “acted as if nothing happened.”

In Dr. West’s 1995 op-ed, he continued to speak of the mainstream media’s broad characterization of the March. “In casting the demonstration as ‘Farrakhan’s March,’ the mainstream media want to shift the focus from Black pain to white anxiety. The media distort and disparage the motivations of most blacks who will march men who are deeply concerned about black suffering and are outraged at the nation’s right-wing turn yet are neither Nation of Islam members nor Farrakhan followers,” said West.

Another circulating idea to challenge the March was that Farrakhan, a Muslim is leading this movement to Washington, therefore Christians should not follow him.

Dr. Abdul Haleem Muhammad, pointed out how 80% of all men that went the march identified as Christians. The co-chair of the Million Man March was Rev. Dr. Ben Chavis of the Wilimngton 10.

 In Houston, Texas, which serves as the southwest regional headquarters of the Nation of Islam, they had the largest crowd of Black men to come out to the All Men’s Meeting, totaling 35,000, according to local police.

“It was Rev. C.L. Jackson, the pastor of Pleasant Grove Mission Baptist Church in the 5th Ward who hosted us. There was great controversy upon the Farrakhan’s arrival to Houston, originally Texas Southern University was to be the host of the All Men’s Meeting, but backed out as media reports swelled that the March was against women.

“Only 15,000 men could get in the church, the other 20,000 listened outside via speakers, on the radio, some sat in cars with other Black men that they didn’t even know to hear the message of unity.” Dr. Muhammad said.

As the head of the southwest region, he talked about how this unity was a precursor to the Million Man March’s “divine unity.”

“Thirty-five thousand Black men, no arrests, no cars towed, no fights ,even though 20,000 people couldn’t get in. Can you imagine if there was a Beyonce concert and it’s free, and 20,000 can’t get in, it would be a riot,” he reflected, laughingly.

Dr. Muhammad recalled how more women spoke at the March, than the March on Washington in 1963. Women who were present or spoke included, Dr. Dorothy I. Height, Rosa Parks; Dr. Betty Shabazz and daughter Ilyasah Shabazz, Maya Angelou, Cora Masters Barry, Mother Khadijah Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam; Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, wife of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad; Jacqueline Jackson, wife of Rev. Jesse Jackson; Rev. Barbara Skinner, C. Delores Tucker, Queen Mother Moore, Dr. Delois Blakeley and 10-year-old Tiffany Mayo, Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Rep. Cardiss Collins, and Rep. Barbara Rose Collins.

The everlasting effect and triumph of the Million Man March beyond its enemies is conclusively said to be life changing, as an oft-repeated narrative by those who attended, were influenced or relative to attendees and the women that helped.

“Each city had a LOC (Local Organizing Committee) which in Dallas still exists. The march was about unity, reconciliation, and atonement, we still work toward those goals with yearly activity and movement,” explained Alwalee, who is still active today.

Jeffery Muhammad, once the longtime student minister of Muhammad Mosque No. 48 in Dallas, and former representative of Min. Farrakhan in Dallas, said “The idea of Black men coming together was undeniable. We were called to be better to our women, our families and each other and to now do things that we had failed to do in our own community that needed to and must be done.

“We thank those who helped facilitate this idea from The Hon. Min. Louis Farrakhan, Diane Ragsdale, Rev. Zan Wesley Holmes who never backed down, Pastor Frederick Douglass Haynes III, Wana Alwalee, The New Black Panther Party, N’ Cobra, our brother Al Lipscomb, so many organizations and churches, and there would be no media coverage without our sister, Cheryl Smith, them and so many more helped this triumph.”

The world bore witness to the triumph.

 “From dawn to dusk, there was no evidence of drug deals and the drive-by shootings or crack pipes and gang colors. What much of America witnessed on the evening news was the sight of hundreds of thousands of Black men, respectable and responsible, in search of solace and solutions,” said Michael Marriott of the New York Times.

According to The Final Call, Jewish Rabbi Bruce Kahn said, “I am White. I am a rabbi. I attended the Million Man March where I stood hour after hour in the midst of a sea of excited, highly principled, welcoming Black men. I listened to the speeches and shared in the grandeur of an extraordinary moment in history. Mostly, it was my privilege to bear witness to how important this gathering was to the African Americans who were present.”

For those who may have said, what did one day do? What happened after the Million Man March. What changed?

Alwalee says, “We are all responsible, definitely the men who went and took the pledge.”

It was reported that because of the March voter registration increased. NPR reported that the Black male vote increased from 3.1 million in 1992 to 4.8 million in 1996.  Black businesses increased according to many men who attended and came back and started businesses. The Black homicide rate declined after the Million Man March, Black homicide death rate has declined by half since its peak in 1993. according to crime statistics from the FBI.  

“The message of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility still resonates today, even more so than it did on that day. A look at the premise that is being used by the current administration to go into cities that are populated, and governed by Black mayors, and have large Black populations on the basis of fighting crime we will see that The Hon. Min. Louis Farrakhan was a visionary for predicting and addressing this by organizing Black men so we may be the solution to the issues that plague our communities,’ concluded Dr. Muhammad, who added that the key to the spirit of The Million Man March staying alive is to review The Minister’s instructions at the end of the day.

There on that plaza and around the world, even in Dallas, Texas where hundreds of men, women and children gathered at The Black Academy of Arts and Letters to view the simulcast, on October 16, 1995, the following Pledge was recited:

(The Black men took this pledge to better themselves, their families and their communities. They repeated this after The Hon. Min. Louis Farrakhan.)

I PLEDGE that from this day forward I will strive to love my brother as I love myself. I, from this day forward, will strive to improve myself spiritually, morally, mentally, socially, politically, and economically for the benefit of myself, my family, and my people.

I PLEDGE that I will strive to build business, build houses, build hospitals, build factories, and enter into international trade for the good of myself, my family, and my people.

I PLEDGE that from this day forward I will never raise my hand with a knife or a gun to beat, cut, or shoot any member of my family or any human being except in self-defense.

I PLEDGE from this day forward I will never abuse my wife by striking her, disrespecting her, for she is the mother of my children and the producer of my future.

I PLEDGE that from this day forward I will never engage in the abuse of children, little boys or little girls for sexual gratification. For I will let them grow in peace to be strong men and women for the future of our people.

I WILL never again use the “B word” to describe any female. But particularly my own Black sister.

I PLEDGE from this day forward that I will not poison my body with drugs or that which is destructive to my health and my well-being.I PLEDGE from this day forward I will support Black newspapers, Black radio, Black television. I will support Black artists who clean up their acts to show respect for themselves and respect for their people and respect for the ears of the human family. I will do all of this, so help me God.