October 14-15, 1995: DIVIDED
WE STAND? As black men from across the U.S. prepare to
converge in Washington, D.C. for Monday's Million Man March, National
Correspondent Jack White reports that the center-stage role of organizer
Louis Farrakhan has forced an unprecedented dilemma upon much of black
America.
By marshalling such an enormous
gathering, the Nation of Islam leader has made himself and his separatist
and anti-Semitic ideas inseparable from the march. "If the turnout is as
large as most people are predicting, and I think it will be huge, then
Farrakhan will be the single most influential leader in black America," White
says. "But Farrakhan's rise is more an indication of the weakness of other black
leaders than of the strength or resonance of his message." If those leaders shun
Farrakhan and skip the march, he says, they cede leadership on the central issue
of personal responsibility and self-sufficiency in the black community, ideas
that most blacks (as well as conservative whites) support. "Don't be misled by
the fact that many or most black elected officials say they support the march,"
says White. "They don't want to be politically hurt by opposing it. They are
basically saying, 'Why get into a fight I cannot win.'"
Million Man March
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