Thousands of people, including members of the Georgetown community, gathered at the National Mall yesterday for Nation of Islam Leader Rev. Louis Farrakhan’s concluding address at the Million Family March.

Farrakhan called for the march, in conjunction with the Unification Church of Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, on the five-year anniversary of the Million Man march. Though there was no official estimate on the number of people in attendance, several speakers, including Benjamin Muhammad, the march organizer from the Nation of Islam, speculated that at least one million people were gathered for yesterday’s event. Those in attendance were spread throughout the Mall between the Capitol, the Ellipse, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Jumbo television screens and speakers were scattered throughout the area so that everyone could see and hear the speeches.

A delegation of 11 Georgetown students led by Carrie Solages (SFS ’01) was in attendance. Solages is the resident director of the Black House, a Georgetown student organization dedicated to the advancement of minorities. He expressed concern that families are in danger because of an increasing divorce rate, high drug use among the youth and insufficient education.

“I really believe in the goals that the march is trying to promote,” Solages said. “We need an awakening for the family.”

According to its organizers, the purpose of the event was to promote racial and religious unity, speak out against discrimination of all kinds and emphasize the sanctity and importance of the family. There was an atmosphere of fellowship that reflected these sentiments as the participants clapped and cheered for the various speakers. Though the crowd was mostly black, there were some white and Asian-American families and evidence of many different religious faiths.

Many prominent political and entertainment figures spoke, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, Dick Gregory and Will Smith. A mass marriage blessing by Farrakhan followed the speeches, along with musical performances by Macy Gray and Mary J. Blige.

Farrakhan’s two-hour concluding address on the Capitol steps was the climax of the day’s activities. The minister’s speech was preceded by a brief video montage of his life’s accomplishments. Farrakhan then took the podium to thunderous applause and addressed the crowd with the traditional Islamic greeting of peace. The guiding theme of the speech was a call for unity and equality among all peoples, regardless of color or creed. Farrakhan referred to Islamic, Jewish and Christian scriptures throughout his speech as he criticized humanity for exploiting their differences to claim supremacy over one another.

“All human beings seem lost to me today,” he said. “As I look at humanity, it is as though no prophet of God ever appeared among us.”

Farrakhan warned that hatred and discrimination keeps humankind from fulfilling their divine potential as creatures in the image of God. Instead, he said, they are relegated to hedonistic children of Satan. He also suggested that adherence to national or religious flags and symbols is limiting.

“We have allowed symbols to define that which no symbol can define . We must rise above symbols into the substance of the oneness of God.”

However, he also recognized the right for people to want racial purity, but not at the expense of harming others. “If you want to keep your race white, that’s a decision you make … but you don’t have to destroy others … [I say] to the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, if you want your race to be pure, good. But then don’t try to break into my family because some of us feel a different way.”

Farrakhan also stressed the importance of education in combating racial and ethnic division. He criticized a “purposeful dumbing down” of the American people by corporate America, which he accused of manipulating Americans like sheep. Farrakhan referred to prejudice as a poison “that starts with the thought that I am better than you because I’m black or I am better than you because I’m white . or I am better than you because I have something that you don’t have.”

He called on the government to “revamp the whole educational system that enslaves the minds of our young.” According to Farrakhan, the government should spend money on education and the spread of knowledge and tolerance rather than weapons of war. He emphasized that all people are entitled to knowledge, regardless of ethnicity. “Education is not a privilege,” he said. “It is a human right.”

Farrakhan also charged America as being built on war and on the exploitation of Native Americans, African slaves and other minorities. He called on the government to remove racial and economic distinctions among citizens by feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and giving health care to everyone. “The riches of America,” he said, “belong to all those who call themselves Americans.”

Farrakhan also emphasized the need to promote the growth and strength of marriage and the family as the basic units of civilization. He criticized religious institutions for relegating women to positions of inferiority and suggested that the woman is the cornerstone of the family. He added that it is female suffering in labor that make life and humanity possible.

With regard to the upcoming presidential election, he urged all citizens to vote and vote their consciences. If the new president fails to live up to expectations, Farrakhan told the crowd “the next time around, punish them at the polls.”

Farrakhan criticized candidates Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore for failing to speak to poor people and to the youth. The minister then promised to act as champion and “the Statue of Liberty” for these underrepresented groups at which time chants of “Farrakhan for president” went up throughout the crowd.

Farrakhan closed his speech with a proposal for the Million Family March Economic Development Fund. He asked all those at the rally to contribute at least $100 to the fund, which would generate between $500 million and $1 billion. Then, after one year, he would ask private investors to donate one tenth of their income to the fund and later call on the government to contribute as well. With the establishment of the fund, Farrakhan said “we’ll be able to rebuild the wasted cities, not just depending on government, but getting government to respond to our needs.”

Solages also emphasized that the march is not just about one man, Farrakhan. Rather, it is about the larger issues of family, unity and racial and religious tolerance.

Nneka Fritz (MSB ’03), another student who attended the march, found the event a very positive experience. “It was beautiful to see people from all different backgrounds, religions and races come together. It was a very peaceful event.”

She also expressed concern at the lack of interest among students in the cause, saying, “I wish more people from Georgetown were there to witness [the march].”