wfn.org | New book reflects on Million Man March

[powellb@ucc.org]

Nov. 22, 1996
United Church of Christ
William C. Winslow
(212) 870-2137
E-mail:  WILLIAM.WINSLOW@ecunet.org
On the World Wide Web:  http://www.ucc.org

(EDITORS:  We invite you to use this release, or to
review the book, in connection with Kwanzaa, the
Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday or Black History
Month.)

African American men, in their own words: new book
reflects on Million Man March and asks, "What next?"

      CLEVELAND -- The Million Man March drew vast
publicity, both for Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan and as an event unto itself.  But what is
its lasting impact?
      Fifty-one men who attended the October 1995
event in Washington, D.C. -- ministers, doctors,
students, mail clerks, fathers and sons -- offer their
reflections in a new book, Atonement: The Million Man
March (Pilgrim Press, Cleveland, 1996).
      "The only thing that mattered was that a
14-year-old African American boy, who had been labeled
an endangered species by sensitive sociologists, had
gotten to witness a million Black men standing
together," writes Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity
United Church of Christ, Chicago.
      "Never before had I seen so many Black people
together at one time," writes another participant. 
"It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen."
      A student remembers that the million men on the
Washington Mall "inspired me to become the best that I
can in everything."  Adds another, "As African-
American men, we needed a day of atonement -- a time
when we could say to ourselves that the problems we
face as a people can only be solved by ourselves."
      Atonement could have been nothing more than a
nostalgic, feel-good look back at what has been dubbed
one of the greatest events in the history of Black men
in America.  It is not.  Rather, its brief essays try
to answer the question, "What next?"
      "We must unite because we can no longer afford
to kill one another," says Douglas Lee, a recent high
school graduate from Cleveland.  "I know one who has
changed, and that one is me."  Adds Nathan Warren
Reed, a community activist, "We need to start praying
and put down the pistols."
      "What now?" asks Thomas E. Wortham III, a police
officer from Chicago.  The most important thing
African Americans can do is "to adopt the spirit of
oneness, caring, politeness and courtesy and the
concept of 'each one teach one.'"
      For many, the Million Man March was a wake-up
call for self-esteem.  Neil James Bullock reflects on
what he calls the sin of Blacks believing what "white
society has said about us ... that we are violent and
that we deserve nothing better than to be locked away
from society."
      "Black men are not finished," insists Eric Hill,
a businessman.  "We are just getting started."
      The United Church of Christ has more than 1.5
million members in more than 6,100 congregations in
the United States and Puerto Rico.  The Pilgrim Press
is one of two Cleveland-based publishing houses
operated by the UCC's United Church Board for Homeland
Ministries.
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