Louis Farrakhan: Million Man March Pledge (1995)
On October 16, 1995, the Reverend Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, brought African American men from around the nation together in Washington, D.C., for a demonstration of unity, pride, and strength. Known as the Million Man March, the daylong assembly culminated with a two-hour speech by Farrakhan that included the recitation of a pledge to secure a better future for African Americans. Unlike Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s March on Washington in 1963, where participants were asked to face westward toward the Lincoln Memorial, Farrakhan asked those present “to face eastward toward a new dawn,” noted Arthur J. Magida in Prophet of Rage: A Life of Louis Farrakhan and His Nation.
The goals set for the Million Man March were atonement, reconciliation, and responsibility. Farrakhan asked the men in his audience to repent for their sins against themselves and their communities, to forgive those who had done them wrong, and to take responsibility for their...
