Latest Million Man March Fizzles

Latest Million Man March Fizzles

by Bruce Majors 11 Oct 2015

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/11/latest-million-man-march-fizzles/

Let us now damn the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March with faint praise. The rally was organized, like the 1995 march it commemorated, by Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.

“Thousands pack D.C. for the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March” reads USA Today’s coverage. That, I think, was accurate – thousands, and nowhere near a million, came.

Perhaps to make the crowd seem bigger, the heavily organized and herded attendees were stretched in a long, medium wide column along the national Mall. They were not allowed to fill it out, with lots of empty space on the sides.

As a result giant TV monitors and speakers were needed, set up every few blocks between the various parts of the Smithsonian and various art galleries, for those so far away they could not see the stage under the Capitol. The sound system was bad, with speakers reverberating with echoes that made it difficult to tell what those on stage were saying.

Perhaps that’s why the crowd, such as it was, seemed bored.

Even the speakers seemed uninspired. There was no rhyme, no rhapsody, no singing, no call and response. Outside of the speakers on stage the only sound was that of entrepreneurs hawking their wares: commemorative T shirts and arm bands; colorful, somewhat attractive artwork suitable for a home shrine to Farrakhan; and buttons bearing the silhouette of the African continent.

The only other sound was that of the many — mainly white — also using the Mall, tourists asking for directions, often with assorted foreign accents, and D.C.-yuppie bureaucrats and lawyers, using the Mall for its real daily use as a running track for Washington insiders.

Since it was the first day where temperatures had dipped into the 50s, the runners were wearing sweat shirts from various Ivy League and other elite universities. The Million Man Marchers themselves were not a downwardly mobile crowd, who though young, hipsterish and often dread-locked, wore garb that did not bespeak a life of poverty and struggle – T-shirts with slogans like Straight Out of Howard, in reference to D.C.’s historically black college, Howard University, were popular.

None of the mainly white interlopers seemed to have gotten the message that the Million Man March would be happening. Indeed D.C. yuppies were having their own festival, Taste of D.C., right beside the back end of the Marchers, on Pennsylvania Avenue, and a suburban Virginia county chapter of the National Organization for Women had a simultaneous rally for equality 25 miles away.

What little music I heard wasn’t good, and it wasn’t exactly Stevie Wonder or Chaka Khan.

Much of the first couple of hours consisted of people promising the crowd that Farrakhan would eventually arrive and speak to them, and many of the early speakers and singers were Hispanic, including one woman with long blond hair promising “Black and Brown Unity.” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution headlined its coverage “The Million Man March’s understated inclusivity“.) It was a slightly odd theme in a year where illegal immigration and its impact on both the government services and the entry level jobs many African Americans depend on has become a hot topic. Perhaps the unity was instead supposed to be about the other themes some on stage raised, like police brutality against minorities, summarized by one speaker as opposition to the “Blue Klux Klan.” One wonders if a purely race based, divisive, approach, led by someone with the resume of Louis Farrakhan, is the most likely way to  achieve criminal justice reform.

Ironically, the event, like most such events, required an enormous police presence to manage.

The Nation of Islam volunteers, men in either dark suits and bow ties, or in uniforms reminiscent of a 1950s movie usher, complete with red epaulets and embroidery, were politely keeping streets and sidewalks clear and giving directions, supplementing the police.

These volunteers, unlike the bored crowd, were in heaven, on a beautiful sunny day where they belonged and had a purpose. The crowd, a few of whom wore Afrocentric T-shirts and buttons or sported banners from socialist parties, didn’t seem to be mainly Nation of Islam adherents.

I suspect they wanted some more substantial fare about how more African Americans — facing rising unemployment  — could belong and have a purpose in the American economy, beyond wearing a funny suit and volunteering to do crowd control. I don’t think they got those answers; Ben Carson,

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) 93^%, and Donald Trump weren’t there.

Million Man March

Louis Farrakhan is the organizer for the Million Man March, the acting head for the Nation of Islam, and awarded the 2007 Jeremiah Wright Jr. Trumpeter award from the Trumpeter Newsmagazine.

Note: Trumpeter Newsmagazine is a publication for the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).

Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is a senior pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago), and was a member of the African American Religious Leadership Committee.

African American Religious Leadership Committee was an advisory group for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign.

Barack Obama was the candidate for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign, a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago), an intern at Sidley Austin LLP, and is the president for the Barack Obama administration.

R. Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.

Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.                    

Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.           

Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Valerie B. Jarrett is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).     

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the Human Rights Watch.

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a benefactor for the Human Rights Watch.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), the president emeritus for the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club (Gainesville, VA), was a trustee at Howard University, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

John G. Roberts Jr. is an honorary member of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club (Gainesville, VA), the chief justice for the U.S. Supreme Court, the chancellor for the Smithsonian Institution, and married to Jane Sullivan Roberts.

David M. Rubenstein is a co-chairman for the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a regent at the Smithsonian Institution.

Shirley Ann Jackson is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a regent at the Smithsonian Institution.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. is a regent at the Smithsonian Institution, and the vice president for the Barack Obama administration.

Barack Obama is the president for the Barack Obama administration, was the candidate for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign, an intern at Sidley Austin LLP, and a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).

Trumpeter Newsmagazine is a publication for the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).

Louis Farrakhan was awarded the 2007 Jeremiah Wright Jr. Trumpeter award from the Trumpeter Newsmagazine, is the acting head for the Nation of Islam, and the organizer for the Million Man March.

Sidney Sheinberg is a director at the Human Rights Watch, and married to Lorraine Sheinberg.

Lorraine Sheinberg is married to Sidney Sheinberg, and a director at the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Kim Gandy was the VP & general counsel for the Feminist Majority Foundation, and the president of the National Organization for Women.

Jane Sullivan Roberts is married to John G. Roberts Jr., the legal counsel for the Feminists for Life, and was a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

David M. Rubenstein was a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, is the president for the Economic Club of Washington, a co-chairman for the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a regent at the Smithsonian Institution.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. was the president for the Economic Club of Washington, a trustee at Howard University, is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), the president emeritus for the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club (Gainesville, VA), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

John G. Roberts Jr. is an honorary member of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club (Gainesville, VA), the chief justice for the U.S. Supreme Court, the chancellor for the Smithsonian Institution, and married to Jane Sullivan Roberts.

Konrad Ng is a director, Asian Pacific American Center for the Smithsonian Institution, and married to Maya Soetoro-Ng.

Maya Soetoro-Ng is married to Konrad Ng, and Barack Obama’s sister.

Barack Obama is Maya Soetoro-Ng’s brother, the president for the Barack Obama administration, was the candidate for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign, an intern at Sidley Austin LLP, and a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).

Trumpeter Newsmagazine is a publication for the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).

Louis Farrakhan was awarded the 2007 Jeremiah Wright Jr. Trumpeter award from the Trumpeter Newsmagazine, is the acting head for the Nation of Islam, and the organizer for the Million Man March.