Man March

NATION OF ISLAM leader Louis Farrakhan is trying his best to use the Million Man March as a springboard. He wants to be acknowledged as THE black leader. But while Mr. Farrakhan may have gained new respect from African Americans and others initially skeptical about the march, that does not mean he should now be treated like an incarnation of Martin Luther King.Many marchers went to Washington wishing it had been planned by someone other than Mr. Farrakhan. Most left the event heartened by what had transpired and giving credit to Mr. Farrakhan for having conceived the idea, but no more willing to be counted as followers of the NOI leader than they were before.

WASHINGTON -- Roderick Terry spent the Million Man March searching for faces.He wanted the young and the old, the serious and the joyful. He was an amateur photographer using an Olympus auto-zoom camera to snatch memories for his own personal remembrance. Instead, the pictures became "One Million Strong" (Duncan & Duncan, $24.95), a glossy hardback of photos and affirmations."I wanted black men to be seen in a positive light," says Terry, 32. "That was my main focus. That was my main concern."

The Million Man March, Louis Farrakhan's plan for a huge rally on Washington's Mall to show America "a vastly different picture of the black male," has grown into an event with support from well beyond the black separatist leader's circle.Mainstream leaders such as the Congressional Black Caucus, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke have endorsed the Oct. 16 march. Organizing efforts across the nation are rooted in black churches as well as Minister Farrakhan's Nation of Islam.

As he settled into his seat, Rev. Michael Hendricks was expecting to begin a two-hour joyride recapturing the spirit of the Million Man March he'd joined a year earlier. But as Spike Lee's new film "Get on the Bus" began moving across the screen, he found himself grumbling in disapproval."This is terrible ... this is degrading," Hendricks griped repeatedly while viewing Lee's depiction of a busload of African-American men making a cross-country journey to last year's mega-march.A year ago, I rode a MARC train to the march in Washington with Hendricks and several of his friends and relatives.

Inspired by the Million Man March in Washington in October, local black business owners will gather tomorrow in Ellicott City on a smaller scale to talk and create alliances."

Hoping to recapture the spirit of last fall's Million Man March, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke yesterday announced plans for a summer summit designed to empower African-Americans and mobilize black men to be more responsive to their communities.Called "Baltimore's Men of the March: A Day of Commitment," the June 29 summit at the Baltimore Arena will have workshops that focus on community involvement, manhood and economic development for African-Americans."The idea is to energize our own community," said Mr. Schmoke, one of an estimated 50,000 black men from Baltimore who attended the Million Man March in October in Washington.

HARVARD religion and Afro-American studies professor Cornell West easily out-orated the field at the recent National Association of Black Journalists convention in Philadelphia.His lecture on the state of black America had the audience at times rolling with laughter, at times biting their lips to keep from crying. People were ready to apply to Harvard for a chance to be in one of his classes.The only time Mr. West seemed to lose confidence was when he tried to explain his endorsement of the "Million Man March" that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and former NAACP executive director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. are planning for Washington on Oct. 16.After having chastised black journalists for sometimes telling only "two-thirds of the truth" to keep a job, Mr. West admitted that in the case of the proposed march he is having to compromise his true feelings about the NOI.He said he does not agree with the Nation of Islam's apparent homophobia, its subjugation of women or lack of tolerance for Jews, but the march is about one thing -- "black suffering" -- and that he could support Mr. Farrakhan in a demonstration about that.

We black Americans seem to need a major event or outrage every so often to revive our mass energies in ways that remind us of the 1960s civil rights movement. In the 1980s, we had mass arrests at the South African embassy to protest apartheid. In the 1990s, there was the Million Man March to redeem black fatherhood and proper role modeling. In 2007, we have the "Jena 6." Thousands flowed by the busload into tiny Jena, La., last week. They came to march on behalf of six black youths who were originally charged with attempted murder for allegedly beating up a white youth last December at the local high school in what many describe as a schoolyard fight.

WASHINGTON -- In the first major meeting of black leaders since the Million Man March, the National African-American Leadership Summit -- chaired by the Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. and spotlighting Louis Farrakhan -- convenes today to develop a strategic action plan."

DENVER -- After a 3-year-old boy was killed in a drive-by shooting in December, 100 black men fanned out through a black neighborhood here. They knocked on doors until leads resulted in three arrests several days later.After rival gangs firebombed four houses in the same northeast Denver neighborhood in January, more than 1,000 men turned out for a five-hour protest rally, the All Black Men Conference. The firebombings stopped.It has been nearly six months since the Million Man March, the gathering of hundreds of thousands of black men in Washington in October organized by the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan.