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October 16th 2009 will mark the 14th annual “Million Man March”, and with the grandiose event just a day away, I had the great opportunity to speak with Captain Dennis Muhammad, of The Nation of Islam – a man who was there from the very get go of not only the first “Million Man March”, but also during the beginning stages of its preparations.

The idea of the “Million Man March” was born back in 1994, after The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered a speech at the 369th Armory in Harlem, New York. “About 12,000 packed the armory, and we had to turn about 12,000 to 15,000 men away because we couldn’t hold them,” said Dennis Muhammad. “It was that day that he (Minister Farrakhan) said to those men that he would like to take a million men to Washington, D.C.”

The mission behind the “Million Man March” movement is aimed at publicly turning the negative stereotypes of African American men into a positive outlook on the race, as a whole. “The Minister felt that the negative portrayal of black youth was being set-up for black destruction, by the United States Government,” said Dennis Muhammad. “And so, he felt he wanted to show the world that black men can come together in a positive way.” And that’s exactly what Minister Louis Farrakhan and his followers achieved. “If somebody would have told me 14-years-ago, that I would live to see the day that black men, in the numbers that attended the march, would be assembled together, and there would be no shooting, no looting, no tooting, no getting high, not one argument, I would say – man not in my lifetime,” said Dennis Muhammad. “But on October 16th 1995, I witnessed the greatest event of my lifetime – the assembly of that number of men marching in Washington, D.C.”

The number of men recorded to have taken part in the premiere “Million Man March” is 400,000. According to Dennis Muhammad, that number has been a subject which has stirred-up a great deal of controversy within the Nation of Islam. Being that Dennis was there, he says it was plain to see the headcount of 400,000, was a great reduction from what he witnessed with his own two eyes. “First and foremost, the capital police, which normally does give out the numbers of the count of those kind of marches gave that number,” said Dennis Muhammad. “We protested the capital police headcount, and during that protest, there was a study done at Boston University.” The study involved researchers recording the square footage of the number of men per square foot. “The actual count came from a satellite position, that pretty much is done by the United States Defense Department, to calculate a number of troops in any given country,” said Dennis Muhammad. “It was estimated that about 1.2 million men were definitely at that march.”

Those men reiterated a number of pledges delivered one-by-one, by Minister Farrakhan. Dennis shared with me the pledge that he says stood out to him among the others, “We were not going to kill one another anymore, only in self-defense would we ever raise our hand up to someone – and that we would not refer to our women anymore as B’s and H’s,” said Dennis Muhammad. “And we were going to go back to make our communities a decent and safe place to live.” According to Dennis Muhammad, once the men took their pledges on that historical day, crime rates in every major city across the country plummeted.

The road to making the “Million Man March” a reality, was one which came with many bumps and potholes for Dennis Muhammad. During the one-year period prior to the first “Million Man March”, Minister Farrakhan was pushing for a large attendance of preachers to endorse the pro-active mission, and welcomed the endorsement of Reverend Jesse Jackson. “The Minister was trying to reach out to Reverend Jackson to endorse it,” said Dennis Muhammad. “The Minister holds great respect for Reverend Jackson, and we can not ignore that, in our opinion, Reverend Jackson is a great and influential man among preachers.”

While Minister Farrakhan was calling on all preachers, Reverend Jesse Jackson and Reverend Al Sharpton happened to be in New York City taking part in a live interview with WBLS’s Gary Byrd. Dennis Muhammad was also in ‘The Big Apple’ at that time, and heard the live radio broadcast. “Reverend Jackson was asked if he was going to attend the ‘Million Man March’,” said Dennis. “I had the radio on, so I put my head close to hear what Rev. Jackson was going to say, and his (Rev. Jackson) response was – ‘Why should I go to Washington to atone. I have nothing to atone for. I have not cheated on my wife. For what do I have to atone’.” Dennis admits that he was floored by what he heard. “I got upset because I know the Minister loves Reverend Jackson,” said Dennis. “And I felt he should have returned the favor to Minister Farrakhan after he stood by Rev. Jackson’s side during his controversial statements made while running for the seat of Commander in Chief.”

Back in 1984, Reverend Jesse Jackson was campaigning for President of the United States of America. That’s when controversy was sparked after Rev. Jackson delivered some statements that ultimately offended the Jewish community. “I personally took great offense to that,” said Dennis Muhammad. “Because my leader, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is really disliked and hated by many segments of the Jewish community after he was labeled as being anti-Semitic, which he is not.” As a result of those statements, many death threats were aimed at Jesse Jackson. “The Minister said – ‘We can afford to lose an election, but we cannot afford to lose the Reverend Jesse Jackson’,” said Dennis Muhammad. Because Minister Farrakhan and his followers backed Jesse Jackson, Dennis admits the situation at hand snowballed out of control. “I specifically remember that one of the statements that they said the Minister allegedly made was, ‘Minister Farrakhan called Judaism a gutter religion,’ which is absolutely not the truth…that’s a lie,” said Dennis. That anti-Semitic statement hit national headlines while Reverend Jesse Jackson was on his way back to the United States from Cuba. “Instead of Reverend Jackson, in my humble opinion, calling the Minister to ask the Minister did he make that statement, I believe Reverend Jackson prematurely repudiated brother Minister Farrakhan,” said Dennis Muhammad. “It was a great hurt to many of ‘The Fruit of Islam’ who were given orders by Minister Farrakhan that ‘anywhere you see Reverend Jackson, protect him and his family, because any man who runs for the President of the United States is putting his life on the line’.” Dennis Muhammad was one of the individuals who took the great responsibility of guarding the life of Jesse Jackson and his family.

Fueled by his great disappointment after hearing Jesse Jackson publicly announce that he would not be in attendance at the “Million Man March”, Dennis made a call that he now regrets. “I’m not proud to say this part of the interview, but I feel that I’m obligated to tell the truth,” said Dennis. “I had got word that Rev. Jackson and Rev. Sharpton were coming over to Silvia’s Restaurant…which is right around the corner from Mosque #7 which I was the Captain over,” said Dennis. “Minister Conrad was to meet with them, and he sent a note to me to join them, but Minister Conrad had no clue that I had another agenda, which was not a kind one.” Captain Dennis Muhammad arranged for his men to move forward with a silent protest against Jesse Jackson. “I said to the men to make sure by the way you look to let Reverend Jackson know that we were displeased with him not supporting the ‘Million Man March’,” said Dennis. “Reverend Jackson and Reverend Sharpton pulled up and there was a long line of men from the street to the door of Silvia’s Restaurant…when Rev Jackson got out and he went to shake the hands of the brothers who were there, they turned their backs on him… I was most certainly wrong, but I paid a price for doing what I did.” Once Rev. Jackson and Rev. Sharpton were inside the restaurant, that’s when Dennis says he personally made his point to Al Sharpton known. “If you don’t have anything positive to say about the “Million Man March” then say nothing at all,” said Captain Dennis. “Captain, I support the ‘Million Man March’,” replied Reverend Sharpton. “At that time Reverend Jackson stood up, he walked over to me, and stuck his hand out. I looked at Reverend Jackson’s hand, and I ignored it,” admitted Dennis Muhammad.

The very next day, Dennis Muhammad received a call from his leader. He says that’s exactly when he realized that he had made a very bad decision. “Reverend Jackson called the Minister and told him that he felt his life was threatened,” said Dennis. “I didn’t threaten him, I just didn’t shake his hand, and it got me in trouble.” At the request of Minister Farrakhan, Dennis Muhammad was to make amends with those he offended. “I flew to Chicago, it was a meeting with Rev. Jackson, Rev. Sharpton, Joseph Lowery, Rev.Clay Evans, Minister Farrakhan, Minister Ben Chavis, Rev Jackson’s son – Jonathan, and others,” said Dennis. “And in the spirit of atonement this was before the “Million Man March”… maybe a week or two… I apologized to Rev Jackson, Rev. Sharpton and Minister Farrakhan, and asked them to forgive me for what I did.” And forgive Dennis Muhammad, they did. Ironically, it was in that same setting that Reverend Jesse Jackson endorsed the “Million Man March”. “He gave that great speech,” said Dennis.

After digging up conflicting media reports surrounding the endorsement granted by Jesse Jackson, I asked the very humble Captain Dennis if he thought what he did may have forced Reverend Jackson to the table. And, in a very calm manner, Captain Dennis replied, “I can say I was pleased to see him endorse the Million Man March.”

Ironically, on that first ‘Day of Atonement’ (Oct 16th 1995), Captain Dennis Muhammad took the pledge (along with the other men at the first ‘Million Man March’), shortly after atoning himself through his asking of forgiveness from the men who sat at that meeting, back in Chicago, before the very first “Million Man March” went down in America’s history.

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• HSK EXCLUSIVE WITH NATION OF ISLAM’S CAPTAIN DENNIS MUHAMMAD
• WTF!!! REV. AL SHARPTON AWARDS JOE JACKSON FOR GOOD PARENTING?
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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 01:00 and is filed under Politics . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.