The Latest on the Million Man March anniversary: The return

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who spearheaded the original march, lead the anniversary gathering at the Capitol called the “Justice or Else” march. “Now women, it’s your body and you can do what you please, but the child you may be aborting may be the next Sitting Bull, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Abraham, Moses or Jesus”. But he added it would be tragic if a scientist or leader was aborted.

In the past the Nation of Islam sponsoring the march has had the reputation of being one of the more bold, unforgiving and alienating black power movements.

“A lot of young persons weren’t around to see the civil-rights movement”, Hall mentioned.

“We still have people dying in the streets. Rather than stand here, we could all contribute to society and help bridge this gap we’re experiencing”, said Jaime Stele, a counter-protester.

Three generations of the Lanier family attended the Justice or Else rally.

When this writer tuned in from her home in Georgia, he said in part: “Moses was not an integrationist and neither are we”.

“Find me a Jew who forgives Hitler”, Farrakhan 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.

About 50 people protested in front of the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix, in what they called a nationwide “Global Rally for Humanity” that hearkened back to a similar anti-Islam demonstration in May organized by Jon Ritzheimer. “What good are we if we think we can last forever and not prepare others to walk in our footsteps?” he said. However arrest figures for black males have fallen over the past two decades. He said he hoped the march would bring attention to issues facing minority communities. “Ferguson ignited it all”, he said.

They also demanded changes in the policing and treatment of the USA police towards the community. “Get that word out of our language”.

An Afro-Cuban practitioner of the Yoruba spirituality who goes by the name “Black Jezus” made his way to D.C. with the New Black Panthers all the way from Miami. It’s been talked about for months, many have recollected on their involvement in the original march, or at least where they were at the time.

U.S. President Barack Obama was famously in attendance at the Million Man March in 1995, as reported by the Jewish Daily Forward.

“It’s racism it’s the white man trying to keep you down because you are black, and so I started to hate white Americans, too”.

“I’m here to support my people and the cause, regardless of what they may be, Black Muslim, Hebrew Israelites, or Black Christians”, he said.

The National Park Service estimated that 400,000 attended the 1995 march, though subsequent counts by private organizations put the number at 800,000 or higher.

Farrakhan, 82, spoke to the crowd on the National Mall in Washington and reflected on the importance of passing the torch to the next generation.

Mark Wilson/AP Participants in the Million Man March gathered on Capitol Hill and the National Mall in 1995.

-The unemployment rate for African-American men in October 1995 was 8.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.