Million Man March: 30 Years Later

Minister Henry Muhammad Reflects 30 Year Later

By Mary Alice Miller
As the 30th anniversary of the historic Million Man March approaches, Minister Henry Muhammad, Minister Farrakhan’s Student Minister of Muhammad Mosque #7C in Brooklyn, New York looks back at the culture at that time and the impact then and now.
“Just thinking about it brings back good nostalgia,” said Min. Henry Muhammad.

“The Million Man March didn’t happen in a vacuum,” Min. Muhammad said. “This was over a ten-year period of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan doing tours of ‘Stop the Killing’ messages to our people in the late ‘80’s after he had come to Madison Square Garden in ‘85. A couple of years after that he had been doing “Stop the Killing” tours because of the fratricidal homicides that was taking place so much in different areas where our Black youth were around America. That was around the time of the crack epidemic.”

The last part of the tour in 1993 was at Jacob Javits Convention Center.
Min. Muhammad continued his recollection: “The Minister said at that meeting on December 18, 1993, ‘I would like to come back and speak to the men. Just the men. If I come back, would you all come out?’ And the crowd said ‘Yes.’”
In January 1994 the Minister came back to the 369th Armory in an all men meeting and 15,000 came out.

“All throughout 1994 the Minister was having all men meetings. But it was at that first meeting at the 369th Armory that the Minister was inspired to say, ‘I would like to take a million men to Washington, D.C.,’” said Min. Muhammad. “He said when he saw the words coming out of his mouth he wanted to pull them back. But it just came to him.”
The seed of that idea was planted.

Farrakhan was filling up armories and other places where men could gather. The momentum started building. In 1994 weekly Manhood Training meetings were held and Local Organizing Committees were formed, building more fervor for the Million Man March.

Min. Muhammad recalled that the O.J. Simpson slow speed chase and Johnni Cochran as his legal representative during Simpson’s criminal trial gave more fuel to Black people regarding the Million Man March.

“God has his way of bringing things around,” said Min. Muhammad.
While promoting the Million Man March talking to grassroots people and the average brother in the streets Min. Muhammad said some expressed concern about their personal safety if they attended.
But, Min. Farrakhan set the tone.

“The Minister said ‘I don’t want this to be where we are looking for sponsors to sponsor us for what we need to do for ourselves and then those sponsors dictate to us based off of money what we can do and what we can’t do, what we can say and what we can’t say. We are going to pay our own way; we are not looking for someone else to pay our way. He was very adamant about that,” Min. Muhammad recalled.

He further explained Min. Farrakhan’s position: “‘This march is about us. We are not going to protest the government. We are not going there to appeal to the government to give us this and that. We are going there to appeal to God for not having our responsibility as men, as fathers, as sons. We are going there to atone and get reconciliation from God for what we did not do standing on the shoulders of our ancestors. We are going to the same place where they sold us as slaves to make an appeal to God before the world.’”

The Million Man March was about atonement, reconciliation, and responsibility.
The date of the Million Man March was also a Day of Absence with no shopping, school or work.

President Bill Clinton and Congress also had their form of a Day of Absence. They were so fearful of a million Black men coming to Washington, D.C. that they all left the district.
“The police in Washington, D.C. had already sat with the Minister and his security team for a plan of evacuation if things started rocking on how they would get the Minister out of there,” Min. Muhammad continued. “The Minister told them ‘If things go down and my people start getting attacked you all better not put your hands on me. I will die right there with my people.’”

There was a sense of danger.
But love, peace, freedom, and brotherhood permeated throughout the mall. Eighty-five percent of the brothers that were there were not Muslim.
“We were shoulder to shoulder so tight that there was a brother in a wheelchair who needed to relieve himself. These brothers picked him up and everybody passed him across each other until he could get to a secure place to put him down until he could be moved,” said Min. Muhammad.

The entire event was 14 hours.
Min. Muhammad recalled that “At a certain point there were brothers on that mall who got tired of hearing all the different speakers and started saying “Farrakhan! Farrakhan!” They were like ‘I came to hear the man who drew us all out here.’”
According to Min. Muhammad, the immediate impact of the Million Man March was measurable.

Voter registration went up astronomically. There were over 25,000 adoptions that started taking place in 1995 by Black men going back into the community adopting Black children. The crime rate went down. One of the instructions given was to go and join an organization in your community. Churches and Black organizations were starting to fill up. Black me were ready to go and be a producer in his community rather than a detriment to his community.
The marriage rate started growing from the influence of that day. Between 1994 and 1996 the birth rate went up by 70%.

“I guess the Black man said, ‘I am going to be more appreciative of my Black woman and I am going to show more responsibility,’” said Min. Muhammad.
“Many of us in the Black community will not talk about it. That needs to be corrected,” Min. Muhammad said, warning that the Million Man March is being written out of history. “Regardless of any critiques or criticisms that we may have, because no one is perfect, we have a man amongst us who was able in the midst of controversy and negativity against him still was able to get a million or more men to come to Washington, D.C.”

Recordings of the Million Man March, Million Family March, Millions More Movement, the 10/10/15 20th anniversary of the Million Man March: Justice or Else are available on NOI.org.
The 30th commemoration of the Million Man March will take place on October 19 at Muhammad Mosque #7C at 202 Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn and Muhammad Mosque #7 at 106-8 W127th St, in Harlem at 10 am. The event will also be livestreamed at NOI.org.