Farrakhan Predicts Big Turnout at Assembly
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, said yesterday that millions of black people would assemble at the National Mall in October to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March.
While blacks have made progress in America, the “masses of our people are on a death march in the oven of social deterioration,” Mr. Farrakhan said in a statement about the assembly, which is called the Millions More Movement and is scheduled for October 15.
Mr. Farrakhan spoke about the assembly at a press conference yesterday in midtown Manhattan attended by the Reverend Al Sharpton, who said he was throwing his support behind the minister’s movement.
The Million Man March in October 1995 drew between 400,000 and a million people, with estimates varying greatly.
The minister yesterday said gays and women were welcome to the gathering in October. Asked about the Nation of Islam’s acceptance of gays and lesbians, he said, “Sex is natural and all of us at some point engage in it.” White scientists, he said, have used sex as a vehicle “to spread the virus of death and destruction to our people,” referring to AIDS.
