October 16, 1995: The Million Man March

October 16, 1995: The Million Man March is held, at the U.S. Capitol, and extending westward down the National Mall, in Washington, D.C.

How many people actually attended Louis Farrakhan's gathering is in dispute: The National Park Service said around 400,000 (which would still have been about 100,000 more than attended the 1963 March On Washington), while ABC hired a research firm that said 837,000 (not quite one million, but still one of the largest gatherings in American history).

Born on May 11, 1933, in The Bronx, with the name Louis Eugene Walcott, Farrakhan began his professional life as a calypso singer, before converting to the Nation of Islam, a.k.a. "The Black Muslims," and impressing their leader, Elijah Muhammad. After a few years using the name "Louis X," with "X" as an "unknown," standing in for his African name that had been lost, he took the name "Farrakhan," a corruption of "furqan," meaning "criterion."

He had written articles for the NOI's newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, saying that Elijah Muhammad's former protege, Malcolm X, was "worthy of death." Once the NOI's most prominent public representative, Malcolm had split upon learning of Elijah Muhammad's personal and financial improprieties. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm was assassinated. Farrakhan has been accused of involvement (he was in Newark at the time), or, at least, through his writing, inciting the act. He has always denied it.

In 1975, Elijah Muhammad died, and his son, Warith Deen Muhammad, reorganized the NOI into a more mainstream Islamic group, dropping its anti-white and anti-Semitic stances. Farrakhan revived the NOI name and platform in 1981, proclaiming himself its leader. His views and statements have been condemned by a wide range of groups, including the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In 1994, a protégé of Farrakhan's, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, made a series of incendiary remarks, and subsequently survived an assassination attempt. Attempting a public relations repair job, Farrakhan agreed to an interview by Barbara Walters on ABC News' program 20/20. Instead, he dug his hole deeper with his answers. To make matters worse, the interview aired on April 22, and was cut off when news of the death of former President Richard Nixon was announced.

Farrakhan recognized two major needs: Helping the life status and the image of black Americans, especially black menl and helping the image of himself and his organization. He decided that a "Million Man March" on the nation's capital would be an unmistakable message.

He announced it as a "National Day of Atonement" -- a poor choice of words for a man so often accused of anti-Semitism, especially since Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the holiest day on the Hebrew Calendar, had been on October 3 and 4, only a few days before. October 3 had also seen the announcement of the Not Guilty verdict in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, which had raised racial tensions.

Farrakhan certainly couldn't be faulted for outreach, as he lined up several esteemed speakers. Mayors Marion Barry of host city Washington and Kurt Schmoke of nearby Baltimore spoke. So did Donald Payne, a black Congressman from Newark, then beginning a transition from a majority-black city to a majority-Hispanic city. Noted writers Maya Angelou and Cornel West also spoke. So did Jeremiah Wright, a Chicago minister who would get in trouble with remarks he made that nearly derailed the 2008 Presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

Representing the original Civil Rights Movement were Martin Luther King III; King allies Rosa Parks, Jesse Jackson, Dorothy Height, Joseph Lowery and James Bevel; Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz; and, perhaps an unwise choice, Tynnetta Muhammad, who had been a mistress of Elijah Muhammad, and the mother of 4 of his children.

Introduced by Benjamin Chavis, national coordinator of the March, and formerly the executive director of the NAACP, Farrakhan had a chance to change a lot of minds that day. Instead, he spoke for two and a half hours, leading to many people walking away, and possibly inspiring the discrepancy in the spectator count.

The length of his speech wasn't its only problem: He went off on tangents, quoting from African-American hymns (the kind of songs that used to be known as "Negro spirituals"), and launched into a focus on the number 19 and its apparent significance to Islam. It reached a point where anyone who hadn't heard him before, and wasn't used to this sort of thing, didn't have the slightest idea of what he was talking about.

In spite of a Spike Lee's film Get On the Bus, depicting a fictional trip to the March and released a year later, the March was a wasted opportunity. The idea was copied: Marches were done on the 10th and 20th Anniversaries, and a "Million Mom March" in favor of gun control was held in 2000.

But, as of October 16, 2022, Farrakhan is still alive, and still running the NOI, with no apparent successor -- Khalid Abdul Muhammad seemed like the most obvious choice, but, having survived his 1994 shooting, he died of a brain aneurysm in 2001 -- but has faded into the background. With the rise of Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, Kamala Harris, and other black leaders, and his own bigotry rendering him a pariah, Farrakhan had been all but irrelevant since 1995.

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October 16, 1995 was a Monday. Just as the 1963 March On Washington was held on a Wednesday, Farrakhan held his march on a weekday. It didn't make any sense, in either case: Why force the potential attendees to choose between attending and risking losing their jobs?

In baseball, the National League Championship Series had already been decided, as the Atlanta Braves had swept the Cincinnati Reds in 4 straight games. It was a travel day for the American League Championship Series. The next day, in Game 6, the Cleveland Indians beat the Seattle Mariners, and clinched their 1st Pennant in 41 years. The Braves would beat the Indians in the World Series, in 6 games.

The NBA season started 18 days later. There was 1 game played in the NHL: The Hartford Whalers beat the New York Rangers, 7-5 at Madison Square Garden.

And on ABC Monday Night Football, the Denver Broncos beat the Oakland Raiders, 27-0 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.