NPR: Farrakhan discusses issues regarding Black Americans and the anniversary of the Million Man March

• Originally published by National Public Radio (NPR) March 25, 2005 Copyright 2005 National Public Radio
  

ED GORDON, host:

From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Ed Gordon.

Minister Louis Farrakhan has been a major voice in black America since the 1970s when he ascended to the leadership ranks of the Nation of Islam. Over the last three decades, Minister Farrakhan's steady critique of civil rights and race relations in America have drawn both strong critical fire and praise. Today Minister Farrakhan and the nation are preparing to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Million Man March. He's also spearheading an accountability movement to black America, and we thank him very much for joining us today.

Minister, thanks so much for being here.

Minister LOUIS FARRAKHAN: It's a real honor and privilege to be with you, Ed.

GORDON: Minister, let's talk a little bit about what you have been doing of late. I know one of the things that you have done in a number of forums is talk about accountability, particularly from black leadership to black America. Why did you feel that's so important?

Min. FARRAKHAN: I believe, Ed, that we in leadership have to build trust, not only with our people but among ourselves. As you know, traditionally, envy, jealousy, destroys from within. And so whenever we are competing with each other, rather than seeing the value of one another and what each of our leaders and each of our organizations brings to the national efforts for liberation, then that produces the strife, the envy, the jealousy and the bitterness. And so we have been moving in leadership circles, calling our brothers and sisters to the bigger picture. No matter what our organizations are doing, no matter what we as individuals are doing, though it may be good, it is not enough to lift all of our people up from the wretched condition that we are in. It will take the unity of all of us, the functional, operational unity and the mutual love and respect for each other to programmatically lift our people.

GORDON: In a forum that you convened in March and also in a forum that Tavis Smiley held of black leaders, there's been talk about a covenant that should be signed among black leadership or leaders, I should say. Talk to me about how you see that working itself out.

Min. FARRAKHAN: Well, we have gathered, my dear brother, leaders in religion, in education, in politics, in economics, in the hip-hop and art and culture community and as well in the, I think I mentioned--and in the health community. All of us are going to sit down and craft words for a covenant that we can sign with each other in the presence of our people, and this covenant is not only with each other, but it is a covenant on behalf of the struggle of our people for improvement of their quality of life. And once our people see us committing ourselves to make our word our bond, then we can reach to our people to assist us programmatically and systemically in providing those kinds of services and building those kinds of institutions that will serve our people's needs.

Lastly on that, we can no longer continue to depend on a benevolent president to correct our condition. That is a responsibility that we must take on our own shoulders. And we believe that if we do this, Ed, whites of goodwill will join that effort to help us repair the damage that 400 years of slavery and injustice has done to us.

GORDON: Minister, you've always taken criticism head-on. There are going to be those even within the black community, who will say, `We've seen this kind of thing before. We've seen a gathering of black leadership, a promise to set egos aside, leave them at the door and move us forward. It hasn't happened before. Why do we believe it's going to happen this time?'

Min. FARRAKHAN: You know, there are safes that people make that have a time lock on it...

GORDON: Mm-hmm.

Min. FARRAKHAN: ...and you can go to the safe at one hour or two hours or three hours or five hours or 10 hours before the time, because if you keep going, that means you really don't know what the time is that will open that door. We've always had the right intentions but the time may not have been ripe. But when you look at our people, Ed, we are in--the masses of our people are on a death march and we who have some quality of life must look at the masses of our people that we are identified with, and we recognize painfully that we have come to the conclusion, Ed, that no one of us alone, no one organization alone, can solve our people's problems. It depends on our unity and pooling our intellectual and financial resources to lift our people from where we are, and I believe that this is that spiritual (unintelligible) moment, and I believe that this is the moment in history when what we've tried to do and failed to do in the past, with the help of God, we will do in this time period.

GORDON: Are we seeing--some suggest, if you read, that there is a change in Farrakhan over the last decade or so, that we're seeing a more tolerant Louis Farrakhan; the welcoming, for instance, of gays to the 10th anniversary celebration of the Million Man March and things of that nature, reaching out to others. Is this a change or is this now the right perception that perhaps was clouded by other things before?

Min. FARRAKHAN: You know, 10 years ago, Ed, when we called for the Million Man March, we never said that black men who were gay could not attend. I could not be a good spiritual leader and deny gays their right at the table. I believe in the prophets of God, Moses, Jesus, Abraham and Mohammed and he may call us. All of us come. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. None of us are free of sin. We can come as we are, but God wants us not to stay as we are but to improve our moral character. And it is in the improving of our moral character that we will be able to relate to each other, not only as brothers in struggle, but we will become friends in that process. Gays are welcome at the 10th anniversary as they were welcome at the Million Man March.

GORDON: Minister, before we get to the Million Man March, let me ask you a pointed question. Do you believe that black leadership, particularly over the course of the last few years, has, quite frankly, failed black America?

Min. FARRAKHAN: In a real sense, all of us have failed if the report card is the strengthening, the empowering and the improvement of the quality of life of the masses of our people. We have more elected officials now than we have ever had, over 10,000. We have more millionaires and a few billionaires, more executives in corporate America, more blacks in science and technology, but the quality of life of the masses of our people has not significantly improved. In fact, the quality of life of the masses is deteriorating, so in that sense, all of us, as church leaders, political leaders, educational leaders, economic leaders, cultural leaders, have failed.

And so painfully, we've come to the conclusion that in order for the masses to rise, we must connect to the masses the wisdom, the intelligence and the strength of the class. And what has happened is, once you see an intelligent black man and woman, we get locked away in corporate America. We're not entrepreneurs to provide jobs and opportunities for our people. So in our coming together, realizing that we have an F or at least a D-minus in correcting the problems of the masses, we want to serve our people and turn that F into an A or a B or at least a passing grade.

GORDON: With about a minute or so to go, Minister, the Million Man March--the decade celebration will be in October. Talk to me about what you hope to see come out of that. Some of the criticism that you heard, I'm sure, was that there was not enough follow-up from the first march.

Min. FARRAKHAN: Well, you know, it depends on how you look at it. There are tremendous gains that came from the first march, but this is more than a march, Ed. This is the beginning of the mobilization of an entire people to accept the responsibility to change our reality. The covenant that we are making with each other as leaders and with our people is also going to be a covenant that we make with God, which is found in 2 Chronicles, I believe, the seventh chapter, the 14th verse: `If my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land.' So the burden, Ed, is on us to change, and if we change our behavior morally, spiritually and educationally and politically, God will help us and others will help us, but the change has to come from us.

GORDON: Well, Minister, we want to first of all thank you for being with us. We know you're battling the flu a little bit, but you promised to be with us, and your word was true. And we know that your health is good on other fronts and we are thankful for that.

Min. FARRAKHAN: I look forward to being with you again and again and again. May God bless you and bless your program.

GORDON: Minister Louis Farrakhan, thank you very much for joining us today.

Min. FARRAKHAN: You're welcome.

GORDON: This is NPR News.