Marchers make pledge - Million Man March

AFRICAN-AMERICAN men pledged October 16 to take responsibility for bettering their families and communities and to refrain from violence, spousal abuse and the use of drugs. Participants in the Million Man March--estimated by the U.S. Park Police to number 400,000 but said to to 1 million by march director Benjamin Chavis Jr.--heard more than 60 speakers during the daylong event.

Nation of Islam leader and march originator Louis Farrakhan said in his nearly two-and-a-half-hour speech that there are two Americas--one white and one black--that are separate and unequal. He called the black men crowded into the Washington Mall a "sea of peace, a sea of tranquillity, a sea of men ready to come back to God, settle their differences and go back home to turn our communities into decent and safe places to live."

Farrakhan led the men in a pledge: "From this day forward, I will never raise my hand with a knife or gun to beat, cut or shoot any member of my family or any human being, except in self-defense."

How broad an interpretation should be given to "self-defense" remains an open question. On the Saturday before the march Nation of Islam National Youth Minister Quanell X told a Chicago Tribune reporter, "I say to Jewish America: Get ready ... knuckle up, put your boots on, because we're ready and the war is going down." That same evening Quanell said before a cheering audience at Washington's McKinley Tech High School, "All you Jews can go straight to hell." Farrakhan aide Khallid Muhammad also said on the march's eve, "This is the time of the black man's rise and the white man's demise."

While many people praised the march for its focus on atonement and personal responsibility, others--including many black religious leaders--refused to endorse the event because of Farrakhan's controversial opinions and statements and those of his spokesmen. Viewed by many as anti-white and anti-Semitic, Farrakhan was widely quoted as referring to jews, Palestinians, Arabs, Koreans and Vietnamese who own businesses in black communities as "bloodsuckers."

But even Farrakhan's harshest critics praised his call for black men to take responsibility for themselves, their families and their neighborhoods. Speaking on The 700 Club television show the day after the march, evangelist Pat Robertson variously called Farrakhan "a demagogue," "a monger of hate," an "anti-Semite" and a "racist." But he also acknowledged that Farrakhan "is embracing initiatives that we all applaud: law and order, discipline in children, family, unity."

At a postmarch news conference, Farrakhan took note of common ground. "I think the pope and Pat Robertson are religious men and they have a frame of reference, which is the Bible, Old and New Testaments," Farrakhan said. "And we have that same frame of reference: the Bible, Old and New Testaments and Koran."

President Clinton declined to appear at the march, instead traveling to Austin, Texas, to deliver a speech on racial equality. He commended march organizers for their message of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility but, in an apparent reference to Farrakhan, warned Americans not to heed the message of malice and division.

Farrakhan, in his speech, responded to Clinton by denying that his message is one of hate. He asked the president to deal with the "root of the problem," which he said is slavery and the idea of white supremacy. "White supremacy has to die in order for humanity to live," Farrakhan said. He told the masses that blacks feed the "degenerate mind of white supremacy" when they resort to violence, use filthy language or make filthy films.

He also asked the men to help register 8 million eligible voters by 1996 in order to help change America. And he called on black men to join organizations in their communities, such as the NAACP, the Urban League, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and others working for "the uplift and the liberation of our people."

Farrakhan told the thousands of black men assembled before him that righting the African-American community's moral compass requires more than just coming together. He spoke of sin and humbling oneself before God. "Now, brothers," Farrakhan said toward the end of his marathon lecture, "moral and spiritual renewal is a necessity. Every one of you must go back home and join some church, synagogue, temple or mosque that is teaching spiritual and moral uplift. I want you, brothers. There's no men in the church, in the mosque," he said. "The men are in the streets and we got to get back to the houses of God."

Some in the crowd said those blacks who did not join the march because of the controversial Farrakhan missed out. Attorney Bob Gates o Baltimore said he attended because "I wanted to show solidarity with other African-American men. I thought it was important to make the statement that there are positive black men in this country and that we're not as negative as the media portrays us."

Concerning Farrakhan, Gates said he does not understand why a messenger who says "lift yourselves up, get off welfare, get off drugs and invest in your community" is so bad. "I thought that's what conservatives wanted because they don't want to pay taxes," he said. "I came here not as an antiwhite gesture but a problack gesture. We have to come here and be truthful. We do and have done some bad things in our community, and to acknowledge that in front of several hundred thousand black men makes you feel good all over."