Million Man March
The march took place in the context of a larger grassroots movement that set out to win politicians' attention for urban and minority issues through widespread voter registration campaigns.
[2]: 244 Further, according to Reverend Jesse Jackson's speech at the March, the United States House of Representatives had reduced funding to some of the programs that played an integral role in urban Americans' lives.
[5]: 33 Instead of providing young children with the means to succeed, they believed the government instead intervened in the lives of its black citizens through law enforcement and welfare programs that did little to improve the community's circumstances.
[5]: 34 In addition to their goal of fostering a spirit of support and self-sufficiency within the black community, organizers of the Million Man March sought to use the event as a publicity campaign aimed at combating the negative racial stereotypes in the American media and in popular culture.
March organizers were dismayed by the sweeping stereotypes they thought white America seemed to draw from the coverage of such figures as Willie Horton, O. J. Simpson, and Mike Tyson.
Although various organizations, charities, and vendors had booths and displays at the rally, the focal point of the day was the stage set up on the west front grounds of the United States Capitol building.
[1]: 143 Speakers called participants to "settle disputes, overcome conflicts, put aside grudges and hatreds" and unite in an effort to create a productive and supportive black community that fosters in each person the ability to "seek the good, find it, embrace it, and build on it.
[1]: 146 In the spirit of unity and atonement, these leaders issued a call for all Black people not in attendance at the March to recognize October 16, 1995, as a sacred day meant for self-reflection and spiritual reconciliation.
[1]: 147 Instead of partaking in their usual routines, participants were instructed to gather at places of worship and to hold teach-ins at their homes in order to meditate on the role and responsibility of blacks in America.
Three days after the march, Farouk El-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University released a controversial estimate of 870,000 people with a margin of error of 25%, meaning that the crowd could have been as small as 655,000 or as large as 1.1 million.
[11][12] Louis Farrakhan acquired unfavorable attention from African-American Christians and was compared to "Adolf Hitler" by the Jewish community for anti-Jewish rhetoric and views.
"[15] Richard Lacayo and Sam Allis wrote that Farrakhan may have organized the march to "simply prove that he was the man who could make it happen; he would then capitalize on the prominence he hoped it would confer.
"[16] A group of black feminists including Angela Davis, Barbara Ransby, Evelynn Hammonds and Kimberlé Crenshaw formed an alliance called the African American Agenda 2000 to oppose the Million Man March.
