Crowds Gather in DC for Million Man March 20th Anniversary

His “Justice or Else!” event came 20 years after hundreds of thousands of black men came to the same stretch of lawn between the Capitol and the Washington Monument to rededicate themselves to being better fathers, sons and citizens. But he added it would be tragic if a scientist or leader was aborted.

Farrakhan, 82, spoke several times about “passing the torch” to a next generation of leaders, and singled out the Black Lives Matter movement that gained momentum after Ferguson and other parts of the country that involved police-involved deaths of blacks. 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. Ostensibly, it’s still a gathering of black Americans.

“The youth in Ferguson and the youth in Palestine are united together to remind us that the dots need to be connected”, Wright said.

Authorities said Bland hanged herself in July in a Texas jail cell after a traffic stop, but her family disputes those findings.

Twenty years ago today, scores of African-American men, led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, assembled at Washington, D.C.’s National Mall to foster a spirit of self-sufficiency and solidarity within the black community, and reverse the negative stereotypes of black men propagated by popular culture and media. President Obama was in California during today’s Justice Or Else rally, reports CBS. “I was hoping that his remarks were going to be more uplifting in the traditional sense”, she said.

“It means the world to me”.

“I’ll think about that one”. “It was the most powerful and fantastic thing I’ve ever witnessed”, Waters said.

“We have to clean up our own community”, Farrakhan told the throngs of men, women and children on the Mall through bullet-proof glass. People seem like they’re not concerned.

“These are not young people who happened to wake up one morning”, he said.

“The speakers also pointedly tied the struggle of the black community to modern-day incidents”. “Get that word out of our language”. “We have a campaign, ‘Statehood or Else!’ where we will go to the Republican and Democratic conventions and demand D.C. statehood”.

The Million Man March in 1995 was successful in raising awareness about race-related issues, but there is still progress to be made.

Muhammad, who said he attended the Million Man March, came this time to stand with the others for the cause of justice for all of our people, especially those of our people that have been victims of overzealous police work or brutality.

The original Million Man March took place on October 16, 1995, almost 20 years ago, as hundreds of thousands of Black men walked side-by-side through the streets of Washington to unite on the steps of the state Capitol. Women, whites and other minorities were not invited to the original march, but organizers say that’s not the case this weekend.

The National Park Service estimated the attendance at the original march to be around 400,000, but subsequent counts by private organizations say the number was at least double that.

The park service no longer estimates the size of crowds at National Mall events.