1995 Million Man March: A call for Atonement, Reconciliation and Responsibility

1995 Million Man March:

A call for Atonement, Reconciliation and Responsibility

Inspired and led by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, more than a million Black men gathered in Washington, D.C. on Saturday October 16, 1995 to declare their right to justice to atone for their failure as men and to accept responsibility as the family head.

Although the DC park service estimated the numbers of Black men to be around 830,000, it was more Black men on the mall that day than there were Black men in all of America’s prisons. Black men from all walks of life, and from all parts of the nation and the world made the mass pilgrimage to Washington D.C. on that fateful Saturday, October 16, 1995.

We did not come to Washington in hopes that all of our issues would be solved in a day. We did not converge on the nations capital that day to petition the government to free the hundreds of thousands of Black men that were tried and convicted by a jury that were not their peers. We did not make this the largest peaceful gathering in history on the nations doorstep to beg for Civil Rights. We did not stand for ten or more hours at rapt attention to ask for justice for the Rodney Kings and the Nicholas Heyward Juniors of America.

We came because we were called – called to atone. In hopes of moving beyond the mere “articulation of Black injustices” The honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and organizers of the event lifted the march from a strictly political level to a spiritual one. “The Day of Atonement” was another name of the march and it was definitely the reason that the march was called. It was a day of learning how to “become at one” with our spiritual selves and one with our Black people.

Mainstream media in American and media outlets from around the world were watching. The world did not see criminals, absentee fathers, idiots, and savages as usually portrayed through mainstream music, movies and other forms of media; on that day, the world saw Black men united in America. If only for one day every mothers son and every fathers daughter that tuned in to CNN, CSPAN, the BBC, and other forms of mass media saw a real depiction of Black men and if they listened to any of the litany of Black male speakers that spoke on the nations capital that day they heard what a real Black man sounds like.

The world saw Black men demonstrating the willingness to shoulder the responsibility of improving themselves and the community. There was neither one fight nor one arrest that day. There was no smoking or drinking. The Washington Mall, where the March was held, was left as clean as it was found. Two of the best descriptions of the Million Man March include the word “miracle” and the phrase “a glimpse of heaven.”

Jihad S. Uhuru

References

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/million-man-march-1995. http://www.noi.org/about-million-man-march/
Madhubuti, H. (1996) Million man march/day of absence: A commemorative anthology, speeches, commentary, photography, poetry, illustrations & documents. Third World Press. Chicago.