A Declaration for a Covenant with God, Leadership and our People
Million Man March 10th Anniversary Statement
Delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
Planning Committee Meeting at the
National Council of Negro Women Headquarters
633 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C.
PREAMBLE
Why should there be a commemoration of the historic Million Man March?
This historic event brought nearly two million men to the Nation’s Capitol. It demonstrated the willingness of Black men to atone to God for our shortcomings as men, husbands and fathers; it demonstrated our willingness to reconcile differences at home, school, church, organizations and in the society in general; it demonstrated our willingness to accept responsibility to change our behavior and to strive to make our communities a more decent place to live.
Although many wonderful things have happened as a result of the march, 10 years later, the masses of our people are slipping further behind. We have a larger middle class, many more millionaires and a few billionaires, however, the overall condition of our people is worse. We have more entrepreneurs, more college graduates, more persons holding political office, more Black mayors, city councilors, aldermen, state representatives, city managers, more corporate executives, yet the masses have not been empowered or improved.
The masses of our people are on a Death March into the oven of social deterioration, broken homes, broken marriages, broken minds, broken spirit, evolving from a string of broken promises by government and leadership that has failed to help our people turn around the misery and wretchedness of our condition.
The knowledge to correct the horror of our condition is among us. The potential force and power to cause us to rise as a people is among us. The finance to fuel our rise is also among us.
What then is needed?
It is the unity of our leadership and organizations. Our unity, the pooling of our resources, financially and intellectually will solve 95% of our problems.
It is time for our leadership to stop thinking and acting solely on behalf of our churches, mosques, temples, synagogues and organizations. It is time for us as leaders to come together and begin to think, plan, and act on behalf of the whole of our people.
Each leader has gradually come to the conclusion that no one organization or leader can solve the many problems we face. Each leader and organization has done the best it could working on its agenda and programs – yet, the masses are slipping further behind.
We have come painfully to the conclusion that we need each other desperately. Allah (God) has given us gifts, skills and talents that must be gathered, harnessed, organized and structured in a way that will enable us to lift our people from where we are to where Allah (God) wants us to be.
This is the challenge of the time. Within us is the will to do this, however, our will must be fed by the insatiable desire to see our people, free, justified and equal with the best in civilized society. Therefore, it is proper that we seize this moment in time, recapture the spirit of the million man, women, youth and family marches, and make the necessary sacrifice to save ourselves and our people.
All of our leaders, teachers and guides who have paid the ultimate price have led us to this moment; all of our people who have died hoping for a better day have led us to this moment; all of those whose hope is lost, who are dying in the streets of America, the homeless, the sick and diseased, those imprisoned, our political prisoners, our veterans, our youth locked in a culture of death, the jobless, the destitute, the forlorn, the abandoned, have led us to this moment in time.
We must seize this moment
VISION
There is no better time; there is no more historic occasion than the 10th Anniversary Commemoration of the historic Million Man March to mobilize and organize our people nationally, and, put systems in place that will permit a successful programmatic thrust to bring to fruition what we envision for ourselves and our people.
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