Millions
More Movement
TM Program
Focuses On Reparation, Reconstruction and RenewalWashington, DC
The countless numbers coming to Washington, DC, October
15, for the Millions More Movement, the 10th Anniversary
commemoration of the Million Man March will experience an
unprecedented day long program in thirteen interconnected
sections, each with a common thread of reparation-repair,
rebuilding, reconstruction and renewal of the Black community
running throughout its presentation.
"This gathering will probably represent the broadest and most
diverse coalition of African Americans and those of African
decent throughout the Diasporas since slavery", said Rev. Willie
Wilson, National executive director of the Millions More
Movement at a press conference October 7 at the National Press
Club.
"Many of the national, political, social, civic and religious
organizations will be present to commit their support to the
repair, reconstruction and rebuilding of our communities."
The thirteen sections will be featured through two major
reparation focuses, (1) internally, which will speak to what
Black people can do for self repair, and renewal and (2)
externally, which will speak to the responsibility of the
government based on more than 300 years of chattel slavery, 100
years of Jim Crow lynching and 50 years of governmental abuse to
Black people, leaders and organizations.
Each section of the program will be based upon systemized
approaches to bring about healing and wholeness of the Black
community, first and foremost, and for all other oppressed
people throughout this country.
A major highlight of the program will be the section dedicated
to the victims and survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that
has made visible to the world much that has been invisible in
America, classism, racism and injustice.
"We will start the Millions More Movement program with the first
national Memorial Service for the victims of Hurricane Katrina
and their families. This will be the first opportunity for
survivors of the hurricane along with elected officials from the
affected states, to gather together to commemorate those whose
lives were changed by this national tragedy. But more important,
we are determined not to allow the lives of those lost to have
been lost in vain," said Dr. Benjamin Chavis, President/CEO of
the Hip Hop Summit Action Network.
In this section of the program, titled after the words of Dr.
Martin Luther King, "From Chaos to Community," special moments
of remembrance, dedication and protest will be highlighted
through speeches, video images, and a 1000 voice choir.
"The Millions More Movement is challenging all of us to rise
above the things that have kept us divided in the past, by
focusing us on the agenda of the Millions More Movement to see
how all of us, with all of our varied differences, can come
together and direct our energy, not at each other, but at the
condition of the reality of the suffering of our people, that we
might use all of our skills, gifts, and talents to create a
better world for ourselves, our children, grandchildren and
great grandchildren," declared The Honorable Minister Louis
Farrakhan.
The tentative sections of the program with approximate time schedules are:
FOCUS ONE Internal Reparations
SECTION ONE: OPENING STATEMENT AND MUSICAL INTRO (5:30 a.m. 9:20 a.m.)
In this section, the tone and order of the day will be presented. Morning prayers from various religious denominations and faiths will be presented including, all three Arabic Faiths, indigenous tribal nations, first Americans, Asians, Latino and others. Libations in honor of the ancestors will celebrated and gospel music will be rendered. A historical salute of African American fallen heroes and heroines will end this section of the program.
SECTION TWO: WELCOME AND GREETINGS (9:20 a.m. 9:45 a.m.)
This section, lead by Dr. Barbara Williams Skinner (MMM Program Co-Chair) and Rev. Willie F. Wilson (MMM National Executive Director), will be dedicated to words of welcome and greetings from the city of Washington, DC and from the National Executive Committee of the Millions More Movement. The former Mayor of Washington, DC. Mayor Marion Barry who opened the doors and services of Washington, DC to 19995 Million Man March will also render greetings and world renown singer/actress, Melba Moore, who was also a participant in the 1995 Million Man March, will lead the audience in "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
SECTION THREE: UNITY TAPESTRY (9:45 a.m. 10:03 a.m.)
Unity Tapestry will feature a diverse and broad spectrum of leaders from African-American groups and organizations, denominational leaders, indigenous native and African leaders. Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League, will lead this section.
SECTION FOUR: FROM CHAOS TO COMMUNITY: TRIBUTE TO VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF HURRICANE KATRINA AND RITA
(10:03 a.m. 10:58 a.m.)
This section, inclusive of Bishop Morton, will be dedicated to the victims and survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which made visible to the world much that has been invisible in America, classism, racism and injustice. A moment of silence and remembrance will be highlighted, a salute to the survivors will be presented, and protest of the media treatment and government response will be presented.
Faith, sports and entertainment leaders, including Bishop Vashti McKenzie (AME); Bishop Hoyt (CME); Bishop Hunter (AMEZ); President Jemison (Progressive National Baptist); Bishop Thurston (Nat. Missionary Baptist); Warrick Dunn (Atlanta Falcon); Rev. Jeffrey Haggray (DC Baptist Convention U.S.A.), leaders from the Church of God in Christ; Venus Williams and Zena Garrison (Tied Together Project) have been invited to share their relief efforts. The Covenant of Action "Let It Never Happen Again" led by U.S. Congressman Elijah Cummings will be honored during this section.
SECTION FIVE: THE MILLIONS MORE MOVEMENT PRIORITY ISSUES (10:58 a.m. 11:42 a.m.)
Co-Chairs of the Millions More Movement Issues Committee, Dr. Maulana Karenga and Dr. Ramona Edelin, will lead this section. In this section, there will be an assessment of the problems and conditions confronting the oppressed. Practical, doable, long and short-term next-step solutions will be presented. The priority issues for next steps are: Family Development; (Dr. Leonard Dunston), Health Development (Dr. Gadson and Dr. Therman Evans); Educational Development (Dr. Asa Hilliard), Spiritual Development (Unity and Values, Rev. Willie Wilson), Labor and Working Issues (Bob Law and Dr. Julianne Malveaux) and Housing Development (Maudine Cooper for Mr. Larry Bailey). Hip-Hop singer and social activist, Erykah Badu, will perform in this section and Dr. Cornell West will be featured as well.
SECTION SIX : INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION (11:42 a.m. 12 Noon)
International Connection speaks to the linkage between people of African decent in America and those throughout the Diaspora. Led by Akbar Muhammad, Minister of Information for the National of Islam, this section will feature international leaders from around the world.
SECTION SEVEN: YOUTH PERSPECTIVE (12 Noon 12:22 p.m.)
This section of the Millions More Movement will speak to youth challenges and a commitment to maintain the struggle against injustice, inequality and unfairness. The youth will call upon the adults to blaze a trail and forge the way that they can follow for the success of the down trodden and left out. The youth who participated as speakers in the 1995 Million Man March will speak to where they are today. The Student Government Association (SGA) presidents of all of the HBCUs will dawn their school colors while the National President of SGA will speak on their behalf.
SECTION EIGHT: VOICES FOR PEACE (12:22 p.m. 12:45 p.m.)
In this section, the Rev. AL Sharpton will led in the voices of opposition against the unjust war and the needless lives lost in the war in Iraq. African American, Latinos, Caucasian, and First American mothers and fathers, who have lost their sons and daughters and relatives of love ones, will voice their concerns and opposition to the war. Elaine Johnson, who has been an opponent of the war since it began, will be joined by others in this section. Also featured in this section is attention to the violence in the streets of this nation, where many families, have lost children and loved one.
FOCUS TWO Internal Reparations
SECTION NINE: SUPPORTING THE MOVEMENT (12:45 p.m. 1:17 p.m.)
In this section, government responsibility in reparations as well as demands will be presented.
Featured speakers will include, Minister Jamil Muhammad (Nation of Islam) and Rev. Major Jemison, (President of the National Progressive Baptist Convention). Dr. Ron Walters and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee will speak to political development issues.
SECTION TEN: THE DEMANDS (1:17 p.m. 1:38 p.m.)
In this section, the demands for changes in the political industrial prison complex will be featured. It will also feature the demand for reparation as a result of the psychological, spiritual, and sociological damages forced upon Black people through years of slavery and Jim Crowism. Former NAACP National Legal Defense Fund Executive Director, Elaine Jones, National President of the New Black Panther Party, Malik Shabazz, and the National Chair of the National Black United Front, Conrad Worrill, will be among the featured speakers on theses issues.
This section will also address Black artists being more accountable and responsible for the images and messages presented in their music and other art forms. The efforts to gain more control of the marketing, and distribution of creative and artistic products section will be emphasized. Rev. Benjamin Chavous (Executive Director of the Hip-Hop Summit and National Mobilization Director for the Millions More Movement), Erykah Badu, hip-hop artist and social activist and Russell Simmons, recording industry mogul will be joined by many hip-hop artists in this section.
SECTION ELEVEN: A WORD FROM THE ELDERS (1:38 p.m. 2:14 p.m.)
The elders will speak to the call for commitment to the continued struggle for justice, liberation, and equality. There will be a special tribute to Dr. Dorothy I. Height, who for over fifty years, has participated in every major movement of the Black Community. Other historical luminaries such as Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King will be recognized. Their pictures will be displayed on the Jumbotron for their efforts in the fight for justice and equality. Pioneers in the civil rights movement, including Dick Gregory, Rev. Samuel Billy Kyle, Rev. Otis Moss, III, Rev. Joseph Lowery and Harry Belafonte, along with many others, will participate in this section.
SECTION TWELVE: A VISION FOR THE FUTURE (2:13 p.m. 3:23 p.m.)
The call for the internal and external repair, rebuilding, and reconstruction of the Black Community which will be featured through video clips, the broad spectrum of leadership, the survey of the Katrina disaster, which is a microcosm of microcosmic problems in health, housing education, economic development, poverty and cultural development that have afflicted the masses of black people in America and throughout the Diaspora will be covered in the message by The Honorable Louis Farrakhan. Because this is Movement and not just a March, the call will be made for continued unity of all of the organizations, and the many, many people across America and the world that have been brought together for this movement.
SECTION THIRTEEN: MILLIONS MORE MOVEMENT DISASTER RELIEF FUND (3:23 p.m. 3:45 p.m.)
The finale will include the initiation of the Millions More Movement Disaster Relief Fund. The first two projects of the fund will be:
The defraying of costs for 400 students attending Howard University because they were uprooted and transplanted because of the Katrina and,
The raising of funds to assist in the rebuilding of the strife torn Gulf region.
There will be a diverse and broad section of leaders who will comprise the Board of Directors of the Fund. These leaders of integrity will be responsible and accountable for the fund and excise fiduciary oversight of the funds revenues and expenditures. Among those who have agreed to participate on the Board of Directors are Dr. Dorothy I. Height, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Major Jemison, Rev. Willie F. Wilson, Harry Belafonte and others.
The program is subject to change