The crowd, spreading down into the area between the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol, enjoyed the sunny fall day waving flags, carrying placards, and listening to the music and speeches via giant screens placed in the park.
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Friday morning on TV One’s NewsOne Now, Rev. Willie Wilson, Ph.D, Co-convener of the Justice or Else rally, joined Martin to discuss Saturday’s rally detailing the event’s agenda.
During his more than two-hour speech, Farrakhan urged listeners to avoid sexual immorality, abortion and violence, even as he criticised “white supremacy” and said the United States could face a series of natural calamities.
“It was twenty years ago, the death of Tamir Rice (12 years) would go unnoticed, leaving the police lie without the world to know the truth”, also said before him one of the organizers of this gathering, Tamika Mallory, listing all black youth killed by police in recent years, as Michael Brown Ferguson or Eric Garner in New York.
Authorities said Bland hanged herself in July in a Texas jail cell after a traffic stop, but her family disputes those findings.
Farrakhan, 82, addressed the “Black Lives Matter” movement that grew from the deaths of unarmed men and women at the hands of police, and said communities victimized by police brutality had had enough.
The Million Man March in 1995 was successful in raising awareness about race-related issues, but there is still progress to be made.
“I’ve been in this country for many years”, says Fox.
“I want 10,000 names that we can train ’cause we got to stand between the guns”, he said, alluding to both black-on-black crime and the killing of unarmed black people by police.
Back then, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan – who inspired the march – spoke directly to black men about “atonement, reconciliation and responsibility”. But on Saturday, Farrakhan introduced several members of the Muhammad family with whom he associates.
The religious leader also called on men and women to treat each other with decency.
Saturday’s rally repeated that theme but incorporated calls for justice in response to a number of shootings of black American men. “When the brothers and sisters arose in Ferguson, you didn’t have any money; you had a principle, a principle you were willing to suffer for that you felt was bigger than yourself and your life and your withstanding of pain”.
Signs of the communitys frustration were written on T-shirts for the Black Lives Matter movement and on posters reading Straight Outta Patience. His administration has sought to balance a call for reforms among the tactics of local law enforcement agencies with support for police departments to help integrate them more fully into their communities.
He asked: “What good are we if we don’t prepare young people to carry the torch of liberation to the next step?” The National Park Service has refused to give crowd estimates on Mall activities since.
Thousands have gathered here in Washington to mark the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March.
Thousands of African-Americans crowded on the National Mall Saturday for the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March.
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For example, the unemployment rate for African-American men in October 1995 was 8.1 per cent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
