thumb|Attendees of the Million Man March

The Million Man March was a large gathering of African-American men in Washington, D.C., on Monday, October 16, 1995. Called by Louis Farrakhan, it was held on and around the National Mall. The National African American Leadership Summit, a leading group of civil rights activists and the Nation of Islam working with scores of civil rights organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, involving its local chapters, not headquarters) formed the Million Man March Organizing Committee. The founder of the National African American Leadership Summit, Benjamin Chavis Jr., served as National Director of the Million Man March.

The committee invited many prominent speakers to address the audience, and African-American men from across the United States converged in Washington to "convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male" and to unite in self-help and self-defense against economic and social ills plaguing the African-American community.

The march took place in the context of a larger grassroots movement that set out to win politicians' attention for urban and minority issues through widespread voter registration campaigns. On the same day, there was a parallel event called the Day of Absence, organized by women in conjunction with the March leadership, which was intended to engage the large population of Black Americans who would not be able to attend the demonstration in Washington. On this date, all Black Americans were encouraged to stay home from their usual school, work, and social engagements, in favor of attending teach-ins, and worship services, focusing on the struggle for a healthy and self-sufficient Black community. Further, organizers of the Day of Absence hoped to use the occasion to make great headway on their voter registration drive. a number significantly lower than march organizers had hoped for.

Economic and social factors

thumb|March attendees

One of the primary motivating factors for the march was to place black issues back on the nation's political agenda. In the aftermath of the Republican Party's victory in the 1994 Congressional election and the continued success of the party's campaign platform, the Contract with America, some African-American leaders believed that the social and economic issues facing the black community fell by the wayside of policy debates.

At the time of the march, African Americans faced unemployment rates nearly twice that of white Americans, a poverty rate of more than 40%, and a median family income that was about 58% of the median for white households. More than 11% of all black men were unemployed and for those aged 16 to 19, the number of unemployed had climbed to over 50%.

Environmental hazards were also seen as making the lives of urban Black Americans unstable. Black men were murdered at a rate of 72 per 100,000, a rate significantly higher than the 9.3 per 100,000 attributed to white men.

I. Early Morning Glory

  • Rev. H. Beecher Hicks of Washington, D.C. and Minister Rasul Muhammad – Masters of Ceremonies
  • Sheik Ahmed Tijani Ben-Omar of Accra, Ghana and Rev. Frederick Haynes III from the Friendship West Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas – adhan and invocation – the Theological Foundation for Atonement
  • Dr. Cornel West – Statement of Atonement
  • Rev. Joseph Lowery – Statement of Atonement
  • Rev. Benjamin Chavis Jr., national coordinator of the Million Man March – the Healing of a People
  • Minister Louis Farrakhan

Structure of speeches

The organizers of the event took steps to lift the march from a purely political level to a spiritual one, hoping to inspire attendees and honored guests to move beyond "articulation of black grievances" The Day of Atonement became a second name for the event and for some came to represent the motivation of the Million Man movement. In the words of one man who was in attendance, Marchers aimed at "being at one with ourselves, the Most High, and our people". March organizers estimated the crowd size at between 1.5 to 2 million people but were incensed when the United States Park Police officially estimated the crowd size at 400,000. Farrakhan threatened to sue the National Park Service because of the low estimate from the Park Police.

Three days after the march, Farouk El-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University released a controversial estimate of 870,000 people with a margin of error of 25%, meaning that the crowd could have been as small as 655,000 or as large as 1.1 million. It later revised that figure to 837,000, with a 20% margin of error (669,600 to 1,004,400).

Media reaction

Louis Farrakhan acquired unfavorable attention from African-American Christians and was compared to "Adolf Hitler" by the Jewish community for anti-Jewish rhetoric and views. His supporters said that Farrakhan was "against those Jews who have sacrificed their deep moral-religious heritage for a set of values grounded in capitalist exploitation and oppression." Newsweek observed that Farrakhan's apparent political agenda could become a concern for the Democratic Party, as his effort to register black men as independent voters could create a "voting bloc [with a] mix of social conservatism, economic 'empowerment' and black solidarity."

Richard Lacayo and Sam Allis wrote that Farrakhan may have organized the march to "simply prove that he was the man who could make it happen; he would then capitalize on the prominence he hoped it would confer."

Sexism

A group of black feminists including Angela Davis, Barbara Ransby, Evelynn Hammonds and Kimberlé Crenshaw formed an alliance called the African American Agenda 2000 to oppose the Million Man March. E. Frances White would recall in 2010 that the march had "frightened many black feminists because we felt that it would herald a dramatic resurgence in black male sexism." Neal offers the perspective of Debra Dickerson, a woman writer who attended the march: "Dickerson noted the aura of politeness and chivalry she experienced walking...there was an element of performance taking place that day for international media, corporate America."

The New York Times published an opinion piece by Charles M. Blow, who found it difficult to "separate the march from the messenger", and criticized Minister Farrakhan's speech, calling it homophobic and patriarchal. In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Janell Ross called Farrakhan's speech "striking", a "stemwinder", and the "apex" of the event.

Cultural impact

The 1996 motion picture Get on the Bus was released exactly one year to the day of this event, directed by Spike Lee as his first movie that he did not act in himself. The road-movie plot has a group of African Americans on the titular bus on the way to the Million Man March.

See also

  • Khalid Abdul Muhammad
  • March on Washington
  • Million Family March
  • Million Woman March
  • Millions More Movement
  • Post-civil rights era African-American history

Non-African American related:

  • List of largest peaceful gatherings
  • Global Marijuana March, also known as the Million Marijuana March
  • Million Mom March
  • Million Muslim March
  • Million People March
  • Million Puppet March
  • Million Worker March

References

Further reading

  • CNN – Million Man March – Oct. 16, 1995
  • Boston University Press Release (adapted from) -–Oct. 27, 1997(sic)
  • NPR Interviews: Louis Farrakhan and the Million Man March
  • Million Man March 10 Anniversary