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Obama Organized Farrakhan’s ‘Million Man March’
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by BMCWrites | April 2, 2008 at 08:22 am
2013 views | 10 Recommendations | 6 comments
Democrat presidential front-runner Barack Obama not only marched with Nation of Islam Founder Louis Farrakhan in the first Million Man March on Washington, D.C., but he helped organize the 1995 event!
The “he marched” claim was reported in a 1995 Chicago Reader article and brought back to the attention of the blogosphere March 29 by Hugh Hewitt. The new revelation, however, was unearthed today by Gateway Pundit.
Buried 13 years deep inside the archives at Biography.com, the biography of Farrakhan includes this statement:
In 1995, along with other prominent black leaders such as Al Sharpton and Barack Obama, Farrakhan helped lead the Million Man March on Washington. A second march, called the Millions More Movement, took place in 2005.
In case you don’t remember — or weren’t around yet — for the 1995 effort, the most-memorable thing about it was the controversy over crowd-size estimates.
March organizers at the time estimated the crowd size at between 1.5 and 2 million people while the United States Park Police officially estimated the crowd size at 400,000, according to the Wikipedia entry about the event. [Translation: The rabble-rousing, hate-America organizers of the event got caught telling, for lack of a more-racially appropriate term, “a little white lie”.]
Now, it’s going to be interesting to see how Obama’s campaign spin doctors spin this one.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 18:59 on April 2nd, 2008
BMCWrites, C'mon when they were counting, everyone left to get a bite to eat. Good find and read. I doubt; however, that this story will cause Obama much Harm. Remember, this is the guy that said he received a ticket to America through the Kennedy airlift. Problem? He came to the USA in Sept 1959. JFK did not provide funds for the airlift until July1960. How much press or questioning have you seen or heard? Almost none.
at 17:31 on April 12th, 2008
I see no reason for Obama to spin anything about the Million Man March. It was an event to promote community service, voter registration, and solidarity among African-American men. The fact that Farrakhan was one of the organizers is immaterial: the event went a long way toward achieving its goals- whether there were half a million people in attendance or a million and a half. Obama can be proud that he was an organizer of the event, even though he is a Christian, not a member of the Nation of Islam.
To say that " the most-memorable thing about it was the controversy over crowd-size estimates" well, perhaps the poster is not a member of the African-American community: black people were extremely, vocally divided about MMM: some wanted nothing to do with anything involving Farrakhan; others, like Obama, saw an opportunity to help create a news item about men of color that did not killing one another.
He may have preferred that the event was spearheaded by, say, the King Center (as in Martin Luther), given his religious and political leanings, but he wisely chose to support a good thing, rather than diffuse its potential by competing with it. Rabble-rousing? hate-America? Please. If that were the stance of the organizers, why mobilize people to vote? to be more actively involved in building community? A group of black men in America is not necessarily a 'rabble', and not all of them hate their country, although some could argue that such emotions were neither surprising or unwarranted.
Too often these days we resist doing anything positive unless we get the credit. If Obama was not a presidential candidate, few Americans would know or care who helped mount the MMM - other than Farrakhan, who made certain his involvement was known.
Is it being suggested that Obama got involved in MMM to get a few more votes for his campaign? A decade before it began?....
at 17:33 on April 12th, 2008
at 22:26 on November 6th, 2008
Obama is more than a muslim a liar & a threat to America & I hope he is exposed & he never gets into the White House he is no damn messiah.
at 22:28 on November 6th, 2008
Farrakhan is nothing more than a loud mouth filthy muslim he is no better than Obama.
at 13:55 on January 21st, 2009
I was there. The crowd was not very dense at all. People were just wandering all around the mall looking at museums in the middle of it. It really wasn't big. Sorry.