[Rhodes22-list] Reading Matter for Return Trip

[Bill Effros]

Brad,

Following are 3 speeches on race.

I have put some portions in red and underlined others so you can get 
through the speeches by Hawaii.  If the red portions don't come through, 
I'll go to plan B.

Bill


> *President Bill Clinton.  October 16, 1995
> Minister Louis Farrakhan  October 16, 1995
> Senator Barack Obama  March 18, 2008
> *
>
>
>   Transcript of President Clinton's speech on race relations:
>
>
>   One America
>
> October 16, 1995, Austin, Texas*
>
> *_*My fellow Americans, I want to begin by telling you that I am 
> hopeful about America. *_When I looked at Nicole Bell up here 
> introducing me and I shook hands with these other young students, I 
> looked into their eyes, I saw the Americorps button on that 
> gentleman's shirt ...
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> I was reminded, as I talk about this thorny subject of race today, I 
> was reminded of what Winston Churchill said about the United States. 
> When President Roosevelt was trying to pass the Lend Lease Act so that 
> we could help Britain in their war against Nazi Germany before we 
> ourselves were involved. And for a good while the issue was hanging 
> fire. And it was unclear whether the Congress would permit us to help 
> Britain, who at that time was the only bulwark against tyranny in Europe.
>
> And Winston Churchill said, "I have great confidence in the judgment 
> and the common sense of the American people and their leaders. They 
> invariably do the right thing, after they have examined every other 
> alternative."
>
> (LAUGHTER)
>
> _*So, I say to you, let me begin by saying, that I can see in the eyes 
> of these students and in the spirit of this moment, we will do the 
> right thing.*_
>
> *In recent weeks every one of us has been made aware of a simple 
> truth. White Americans and black Americans often see the same world in 
> drastically different ways.** Ways that go beyond and beneath the 
> Simpson trial and its aftermath, which brought these perceptions so 
> starkly into the open.*
>
> *The rift we see before us, that is tearing at the heart of America, 
> exists in spite of the remarkable progress black Americans have made 
> in the last generation since Martin Luther King swept America up in 
> his dream, and President Johnson spoke so powerfully for the dignity 
> of man and the destiny of democracy in demanding that Congress 
> guarantee full voting rights to blacks.*
>
> _*The rift between blacks and whites exists still in a very special 
> way in America, in spite of the fact that we have become much more 
> racially and ethnically diverse and that Hispanic Americans, 
> themselves no strangers to discrimination, are now almost ten percent 
> of our national population.* _
>
> _*The reasons for this divide are many. Some are rooted in the awful 
> history and stubborn persistence of racism. Some are rooted in the 
> different ways we experience the threats of modern life to personal 
> security, family values and strong communities.*_
>
> _*Some are rooted in the fact that we still haven't learned to talk 
> frankly, to listen carefully, and to work together across racial lines. *_
>
> _*Almost 30 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King took his last march with 
> sanitation workers in Memphis. They marched for dignity, equality and 
> economic justice. Many carried placards that read simply, "I am a 
> man." The throngs of men marching in Washington today, almost all of 
> them are doing so for the same stated reason, but there is a profound 
> difference between this march today, and those of 30 years ago.*_
>
> _*Thirty years ago, the marchers were demanding the dignity and 
> opportunity, the dignity and opportunity they were due, because in the 
> face of terrible discrimination they had worked hard, raised their 
> children, paid their taxes, obeyed the laws and fought our wars.* _
>
> _*Today's march is also about pride and dignity and respect.** But 
> after a generation of deepening social problems that 
> disproportionately impact black Americans, it is also about black men 
> taking renewed responsibility for themselves, their families and their 
> communities.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *It's about saying "no" to crime and drugs and violence. It's about 
> standing up for atonement and reconciliation. It's about insisting 
> that others do the same and offering to help them. It's about the 
> frank admission that, unless black men shoulder their load, no one 
> else can help them or their brothers, their sisters and their children 
> escape the hard, bleak lives that too many of them still face.*
>
> *Of course, some of those in the March do have a history that is far 
> from its message of atonement and reconciliation. One million men are 
> right to be standing up for personal responsibility. *_*But one 
> million men do not make right, one man's message of malice and 
> division.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*No good house was ever built on a bad foundation. Nothing good ever 
> came of hate*. *So let us pray today that all who march and all who 
> speak will stand for atonement, for reconciliation, for responsibility.* _
>
> *_Let us pray that those who have spoken for hatred and division in 
> the past will turn away from that past and give voice to the true 
> message of those ordinary Americans who march. _If that happens ...*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *If that happens, the men and the women who are there with them, will 
> be marching into better lives for themselves, and their families, and 
> they could be marching into a better future for America.*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *Today, we face a choice. One way leads to further separation and 
> bitterness and more lost futures. The other way -- the path of courage 
> and wisdom -- leads to unity, to reconciliation, to a rich opportunity 
> for all Americans to make the most of the lives God gave them.*
>
> *This moment, in which the racial divide is so clearly out in the open 
> need not be a setback for us. It presents us with a great opportunity 
> and we dare not let it pass us by.*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *In the past, when we've had the courage to face the truth about our 
> failure to live up to our own best ideals, we've grown stronger, moved 
> forward, and restored proud American optimism. At such turning points, 
> America moved to preserve the Union and abolish slavery, to embrace 
> women's suffrage, to guarantee basic legal rights to America without 
> regard to race under the leadership of President Johnson.*
>
> *At each of these moments, we looked in the national mirror, and were 
> brave enough to say, this is not who we are. We're better than that.*
>
> *Abraham Lincoln reminded us that "a house divided against itself, can 
> not stand." When divisions have threatened to bring our house down, 
> somehow we have always moved together to shore it up.*
>
> *My fellow Americans, our house is the greatest democracy in all human 
> history. And with all its racial and ethnic diversity it has beaten 
> the odds of human history. But we know that divisions remain. And we 
> still have work to do.*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *The two worlds we see now, each can contain both truth and 
> distortion. Both black and white Americans must face this, for honesty 
> is the only gateway to the many acts of reconciliations that will 
> unite our worlds at last into one America.*
>
> *White America must understand and acknowledge the roots of black 
> pain. It began with unequal treatment, first in law, and later in 
> fact. African Americans, indeed, have lived too long with a justice 
> system that in too many cases has been and continues to be, less than 
> just.*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> The record of abuses extends from lynchings and trumped up charges to 
> false arrests and police brutality. *The tragedies of Emmett Till and 
> Rodney King are bloody markers on the very same road.* Still today too 
> many of our police officers play by the rules of the bad old days. It 
> is beyond wrong when law abiding black parents have to tell their law 
> abiding children to fear the police whose salaries are paid by their 
> own taxes.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> And blacks are right to think something is terribly wrong when African 
> American men are many times more likely to be victims of homicide than 
> any other group in this country; when there are more African American 
> men in our correction system than in our colleges; when *almost one in 
> three African American men, in their twenties, are either in jail, on 
> parole, or otherwise under the supervision of the criminal system. 
> Nearly one in three.*
>
> *And that is a disproportionate percentage in comparison to the 
> percent of blacks who use drugs in our society. **Now I would like 
> every white person here and in America to take a moment to think how 
> he or she would feel if one in three white men were in similar 
> circumstances.*
>
> And there is still unacceptable economic disparity between blacks and 
> whites. *_It is so fashionable to talk, today, about African 
> Americans, as if they had been some sort of protected class. Many 
> whites think blacks are getting more than their fair share, in terms 
> of jobs and promotions. _
> *
>
> *_That is not true. _
> *
>
> _*That is not true.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> The truth is that African Americans still make on average about 60 
> percent of what white people do. And more than half of African 
> American children live in poverty and at the very time our young 
> Americans need access to college more than ever before, black college 
> enrollment is dropping in America.
>
> _*On the other hand, blacks must understand and acknowledge the roots 
> of white fear in America.* _
>
> *There is a legitimate fear of the violence that is too prevalent in 
> our urban areas and often, by experience, or at least what people see 
> on the news at night, violence for those white people too often has a 
> black face.*
>
> _*It isn't racist for a parent to pull his or her child close when 
> walking through a high crime neighborhood.* _Or, to wish to stay away 
> from neighborhoods where innocent children can be shot in school or 
> standing at bus stops by thugs driving by with assault weapons or 
> toting handguns like old west desperadoes.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> Is isn't racist for parents to recoil in disgust when they read about 
> a national survey of gang members saying that two thirds of them feel 
> justified in shooting someone simply for showing them disrespect.
>
> It isn't racist for whites to say they don't understand why people put 
> up with gangs on the corner or in the projects or with drugs being 
> sold in the schools or in the open.
>
> _*It's not racist for whites to assert that the culture of welfare 
> dependency, out of wedlock pregnancy and absent fatherhood cannot be 
> broken by social programs, unless there is first more personal 
> responsibility.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *The great potential for this march today, beyond the black community, 
> is that whites will come to see a larger truth: That blacks share 
> their fears and embrace their convictions, and openly assert that, 
> without changes in the black community and within individuals, real 
> change for our society will not come.*
>
> _*This march should remind white people that most black people share 
> their old fashioned American values.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> For most black Americans still do work hard, care for their families, 
> pay their taxes and obey the law. Often, under circumstances which are 
> far more difficult than those their white counterparts face.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> Imagine how you would feel if you were a young parent in your twenties 
> with a young child living in a housing project, working somewhere for 
> $5 an hour with no health insurance, passing every day, people on the 
> street selling drugs, making one hundred times what you make. *Those 
> people are the real heroes of America today and we should recognize 
> that.*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> And white people too often forget that they are not immune to the 
> problems black Americans face. Crime, drugs, domestic abuse and teen 
> pregnancy. They are too prevalent among whites as well, and some of 
> those problems are growing faster in our white population than in our 
> minority population.
>
> *So, we all have a stake in solving these common problems together.* 
> It is, therefore, wrong for white Americans to do what they have done 
> too often, simply to move further away from the problems and support 
> policies that will only make them worse.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*Finally, both sides seem to fear, deep down inside, that they'll 
> never quite be able to see each other as more than enemy faces, all of 
> whom carry at least a sliver of bigotry in their hearts.* _
>
> Differences of opinion rooted in different experiences are healthy, 
> indeed essential for democracies. But differences so great and so 
> rooted in race, threaten to divide the house Mr. Lincoln gave his life 
> to save. *As Dr. King said, we must learn to live together as 
> brothers, or we will perish as fools.*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> Recognizing one another's real grievances is only the first step. We 
> must all take responsibility for ourselves, our conduct and our 
> attitudes.
>
> _*America, we must clean our house of racism!*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> To our white citizens, I say I know most of you everyday do your very 
> best by your own lights, to live a life free of discrimination. 
> Nevertheless, too many destructive ideas are gaining currency in our 
> midst. The taped voice of one policeman should fill you with outrage.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> So I say we must clean the house of white America of racism. Americans 
> who are in the white majority should be proud to stand up and be heard 
> denouncing the sort of racist rhetoric we heard on that tape -- so 
> loudly and clearly denouncing it that our black fellow citizens can 
> hear us.
>
> _*White racism may be black people's burden, but it's white people's 
> problem. We must clean our house.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*To our black citizens,*_ I honor the presence of hundreds of 
> thousands of men in Washington today, committed to atonement and to 
> personal responsibility. And the commitment of millions of other men 
> and women who are African Americans to this cause. I call upon you to 
> build on this effort, to share equally in the promise of America. But 
> to do that, _*your house also must be cleaned of racism.*_ There are 
> too many today...
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _...*There are too many today, white and black, on the left and the 
> right, on the street corners and the radio waves, who seek to sow 
> division for their own purposes. *_
>
> _*To them I say, NO MORE!  We must be one.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps 
> but family -- white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different 
> -- who share basic American values and are willing to live by them.* _
>
> When a child is gunned down in the street in the Bronx, no matter what 
> our race, he is our American child. When a women dies from a beating, 
> no matter what our race or hers, she is our American sister.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> And every time drugs course through the veins of another child, it 
> clouds the future of all our American children.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*Whether we like it or not, we are one nation, one family, 
> indivisible. And for us, divorce or separation are not options.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> Here, in 1995, on the edge of the 21st century, we dare not tolerate 
> the existence of two Americas. Under my watch, I will do everything I 
> can to see that, as soon as possible, there is only one, one America 
> under the rule of law. _*One social contract, committed, not to winner 
> take all, but to giving all Americans a chance to win together -- one 
> America.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> Well, how do we get there? First, today *_I ask_ every governor, every 
> mayor, every business leader, every church leader, every civic leader, 
> every union steward, every student leader -- most important, _every 
> citizen _-- in every work place and learning place and meeting place 
> all across America _to take personal responsibility for reaching out 
> to people of different races, for taking time to sit down and talk 
> through this issue, to have the courage to speak honestly and frankly, 
> and then to have the discipline to listen quietly with an open mind 
> and an open heart as others do the same._*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*This may seem like a simple request, but for tens of millions of 
> Americans this has never been a reality. They have never spoken and 
> they have never listened --
> *_
>
> _*Not really,
> *_
>
> _*Not really.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*I am convinced, based on a rich lifetime of friendships and common 
> endeavors with people of different races, that the American people 
> will find out they have a lot more in common than they think they do.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *The second thing we have to do is to defend and enhance real 
> opportunity. I'm not talking about opportunity for black Americans or 
> opportunity for white Americans, I'm talking about opportunity for all 
> Americans.*
>
> *(APPLAUSE)*
>
> Sooner or later, all our speaking, all our listening, all our caring 
> has to lead to constructive action together for our words and our 
> intentions to have meaning.
>
> We can do this first by truly rewarding work and family in government 
> policies, in employment policies, in community practices. We also have 
> to realize that there are some areas of our country whether in urban 
> areas or poor rural areas like South Texas or Eastern Arkansas, where 
> these problems are going to be more prevalent just because there is no 
> opportunity. There is only so much temptation some people can stand 
> when they turn up against a brick wall day after day after day.
>
> And if we can spread the benefits of education and free enterprise to 
> those who have been denied them too long and who are isolated in 
> enclaves in this country, then we have a moral obligation to do it.
>
> It will be good for our country.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *Third, and perhaps most important of all, we have to give every child 
> in this country and every adult, who still needs it, the opportunity 
> to get a good education.*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *President Johnson understood that and now that I am privileged to 
> have this job, and to look back across the whole sweep of American 
> history, I can appreciate how truly historic his commitment to the 
> simple idea that every child in those country ought to have an 
> opportunity to get a good, safe, decent, fulfilling education was.*
>
> *It was revolutionary then, and it is revolutionary today.*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> Today that matters more than ever. I am trying to do my part. I am 
> fighting hard against efforts to roll back family security, aid to 
> distressed communities, and support for education. I want it to be 
> easier for poor children to get off to a good start in school. I want 
> it to be easier for everybody to go to college and stay there, not 
> harder.
>
> *_I want to mend affirmative action but I do not think America is at a 
> place today where we can end it._ *The evidence of the last several 
> weeks shows that.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*But let us remember the people marching in Washington today are 
> right about one fundamental thing. At its base, this issue of race is 
> not about government, or political leaders. It is about what is in the 
> heart and minds and life of the American people. *_There will be no 
> progress in the absence of real responsibility on the part of all 
> Americans. Nowhere is that responsibility more important than in our 
> efforts to promote public safety. And preserve the rule of law.
>
> Law and order is the first responsibility of government. Our citizens 
> must respect the law and those who enforce it.
>
> Police have a life and death responsibility, never, never to abuse the 
> power granted them by the people. We know, by the way, what works in 
> fighting crime, also happens to improve relationships between the races.
>
> What works in fighting crime is community policing. We have seen it 
> working all across America. The crime rate is down. The murder rate is 
> down. Where people relate to each other across the lines of police and 
> community in an open, honest, respectful, supportive way.
>
> We can lower crime and raise the state of race relations in America if 
> we will remember this simple truth.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> But if this is going to work, police departments have to be fair. And 
> engaged with, not estranged from, their communities. I am committed to 
> making this kind of community policing a reality all across our country.
>
> But you must be committed to making it a reality in your communities. 
> We have to root out the remnants of racism in our police departments. 
> We've got to get it out of our entire criminal justice system. But 
> just as the police have a sacred duty to protect the community fairly, 
> all of our citizens have a sacred responsibility to respect the 
> police, to teach our young people to respect them, and then to support 
> them and work with them so that they can succeed in making us safer.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> Let's not forget most police officers, of whatever race, are honest 
> people who love the law and put their lives on the lines so that the 
> citizens they're protecting can lead decent, secure lives.
>
> So that their children can grow up to do the same.
>
> *Finally, I want to say on the day of this march a moment about a 
> crucial area of responsibility. The responsibility of fatherhood. *The 
> single biggest social problem in our society may be the growing 
> absence of fathers from their children's homes because it contributes 
> to so many other social problems. One child in four grows up in a 
> fatherless home without a father to help guide, without a father to 
> care, without a father to teach boys to be men, and to teach girls to 
> expect respect from men. It's harder.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *There are a lot of mothers out there doing a magnificent job alone. A 
> magnificent job alone, but it is harder.*
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> *This, of course, is not a black problem or a Latino problem. Or a 
> white problem. It is an American problem, but it aggravates the 
> conditions of the racial divide.*
>
> I know from my own life it is harder because my own father died before 
> I was born and my stepfather's battle with alcohol kept him from being 
> the father he might have been. But for all fathers, parenting is not 
> easy and every parent makes mistakes. I know that too from my own 
> experience. The point is that we need people to be there for their 
> children. Day after day. Building a family is the hardest job a man 
> can do, but it's also the most important.
>
> To those who are neglecting their children, I say it is not too late. 
> Your children still need you. To those who only send money in the form 
> of child support, I say, keep sending the checks. Your kids count on 
> them.
>
> And we'll catch you and enforce the law, if you stop.
>
> But, the message of this march today, one message is that your money 
> is no replacement for your guiding, your caring, your loving the 
> children you brought into this world.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*We can only build strong families when men and women respect each 
> other, when they have partnerships, when men are as involved in the 
> homeplace as women have become involved in the workplace.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> It means, among other things, that we must keep working until we end 
> domestic violence against women and children.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> I hope those men in Washington today pledge, among other things, to 
> never, never raise their hand in violence against a woman.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*So today, my fellow Americans, I honor the black men marching in 
> Washington to demonstrate their commitment to themselves, their 
> families and their communities. I honor the millions of men and women 
> in America, the vast majority of every color, who without fanfare or 
> recognition, do what it takes to be good fathers and good mothers, 
> good workers and good citizens. They all deserve the thanks of America.*_
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*But, when we leave here today, what are you going to do?
> *_
>
> _*What are you going to do?
> *_
>
> _*Let all of us who want to stand up against racism do our part to 
> roll back the divide.
> *_
>
> Begin by seeking out people in the workplace, the classroom, the 
> community, the neighborhood across town, the places of worship, to 
> actually sit down and have those honest conversations I talked about. 
> Conversations where we speak openly and listen and understand how 
> others view this world of ours.
>
> Make no mistake about it, we can bridge this great divide. This is, 
> after all, a very great country and we have become great by what we 
> have overcome. We have the world's strongest economy and it's on the 
> move, but we've really lasted because we have understood that our 
> success could never be measured solely by the size of our gross 
> national product.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> I believe the march in Washington today spawned such an outpouring 
> because it is a reflection of something deeper and stronger that is 
> running throughout our American community. I believe that in millions 
> and millions of different ways our entire country is reasserting our 
> commitment to the bedrock values that made our country great and that 
> make life worth living.
>
> The great divides of the past call for and were addressed by legal and 
> legislative changes. They were addressed by leaders like Lyndon 
> Johnson, who passed the civil rights act and the voting rights act.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> And, to be sure, this great divide requires a public response by 
> democratically elected leaders, but today we are really dealing, and 
> we know it, with problems that grow in large measure out of the way 
> all of us look at the world with our minds and the way we feel about 
> the world with our hearts.
>
> And therefore while leaders and legislation may be important, this is 
> work that has to be done by every single one of you.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> _*And this is the ultimate test of our democracy, for today the house 
> divided exists largely in the minds and hearts of the American people.
> *_
>
> _*And it must be united there, in the minds and hearts of our people.* _
>
> _*Yes, there are some who would poison our progress by selling short 
> the great character of our people and our enormous capacity to change 
> and grow. *_
>
> _*But they will not win the day.
> *_
>
> *_We will win the day._
> *
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
>
>     Text of Minister Louis Farrakhan's Speech at the "Million Man March"
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Minister Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam
> Christopher Farrakhan, son of Louis Farrakhan
>
> October 16, 1995, Washington, D.C.
>
> *Christopher Farrakhan:* In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the 
> Merciful, I bear witness that there is no god but Allah who came in 
> the person of Master Farad Muhammad. And I bear witness that The 
> Honorable Elijah Muhammad is his true servant. And I further bear 
> witness that Minister Louis Farrakhan is his divine reminder in our 
> midst. On behalf of my family, my mother, my wife at home, and my 
> children, we have been the brunt of a whole lot of attacks. And those 
> of you who know the plight of my father knows that whenever any black 
> man is in trouble, he always comes to your aid. _*Never be ashamed to 
> stand up and say that Farrakhan is a friend of the black man. *_And I 
> want all- and I challenge all of the leaders that when you are asked 
> by your enemies and those who oppressed us.  _*My father is no bigot.  
> He is no racist.  He is no anti-Semite. *_And we have the history in 
> our archives that will prove everything that I'm telling you. So from 
> the president on down to everybody who's under him, Farrakhan is in 
> your midst today. You don't have to think about what he said or listen 
> to anybody about what he said. Call him yourself and ask him what he 
> said. I present to you the man that God has given this vision to, for 
> without the vision the people will perish. And I say to you that my 
> father is here to speak to you, so listen to him very carefully. I 
> bring to you my leader, my teacher, my guide, my father, your brother, 
> The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Let us receive him. Brother 
> Farrakhan.
>
> - * -
>
> *Minister Louis Farrakhan:* Thank you. In the name of Allah the 
> Beneficent, the Merciful, we thank him for his prophets and the 
> scriptures which they brought. We thank him for Moses and the Torah. 
> We thank him for Jesus and the Gospel. We thank him for Mohammed and 
> the Koran. Peace be upon these worthy servants of Allah.
>
> I am so grateful to Allah for his intervention in our affairs in the 
> person of Master Farad Muhammad, the great mahdi [sp] who came among 
> us and raised from among us a divine leader, teacher and guide, his 
> messenger to us, The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad [sp]. I greet all 
> of you, my dear and wonderful brothers, with the greeting words of 
> peace. We say it in the Arabic language, a salaam aleykum.
>
> I would like to thank all of those known and unknown persons who 
> worked to make this day of atonement and reconciliation a reality. My 
> thanks and my extreme gratitude to The Reverend Benjamin Chavis and to 
> all of the members of the national organizing committees, to all of 
> the local organizing committees, to Dr. Dorothy Hyde [sp] and the 
> National Council of Negro Women, and all of the sisters who were 
> involved in the planning of the Million Man March. Of course, if I 
> named all those persons whom I know helped to make this event a 
> reality, it would take a tremendous amount of time.
>
> But suffice it to say that we are grateful to all who made this day 
> possible. We are grateful to those who put up the sound and the 
> screens. We are grateful to all of the technical people who have made 
> this possible, to all of the security personnel. My heartfelt thanks 
> to Mr. Robert Johnson, the CEO of BET, for having The Reverend Chavis, 
> Dr. Cornell West [sp], and myself with Bev Smith on our voices to help 
> inform our people of the purpose for the Million Man March and for 
> taking out a full-page endorsing the march in the USA Today newspaper. 
> We thank all of the black newspapers, radio stations, commentators, 
> disc jockeys who really talked up the Million Man March.
>
> The mass media did not get involved until the last minute, and it 
> seemed as though they got involved with another agenda in mind. But to 
> all of you- and we thank you, mass media, too, because even though you 
> planned it for mischief, God planned it for good. So we thank you very 
> much for helping to make this day successful. And to all who 
> participated in the program and who helped to formulate the program, 
> to all the singers, the dancers, the performers, the speakers, to all 
> of the celebrities, to the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, 
> to all of the religious leaders who are present, to all of the state 
> legislators, to everyone that made this day possible, words are 
> inadequate to express our heartfelt thanks.
>
> But really, in truth, all thanks, all praise, all honor, all glory 
> belongs to God, for this is the day that the Lord has made. So we are 
> here rejoicing in this day. Certainly, to all of the members of the 
> Nation of Islam, to all of the ministers, captains, secretaries, and 
> sister captains, to all of the foot soldiers who worked to raise money 
> that this day could be produced, and hopefully all of our vendors be 
> paid, it is not adequate to express our deep sense of personal 
> gratitude, so all I can say is thanks, thanks, thanks. Thank you.
>
> Now, where are we gathered? We're standing at the steps of the United 
> States Capitol. I'm looking at the Washington Monument and beyond it 
> to the Lincoln Memorial and beyond that, to the left, to your right, 
> the Jefferson Memorial. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of 
> these United States, and he was the man who allegedly freed us. 
> Abraham Lincoln saw in his day what President Clinton sees in this 
> day. He saw the great divide between black and white. Abraham Lincoln 
> and Bill Clinton see what the Kerner Commission saw 30 years ago when 
> they said that this nation was moving toward two Americas, one black, 
> one white, separate and unequal. And the Kerner Commission revisited 
> their findings 25 years later and saw that America was worse today 
> than it was in the time of Martin Luther King, Jr. There's still two 
> Americas, one black, one white, separate and unequal. Abraham Lincoln, 
> when he saw this great divide, he pondered a solution of separation. 
> Abraham Lincoln said he never was in favor of our being jurors or 
> having equal status with the whites of this nation. Abraham Lincoln 
> said that if there were to be a superior or inferior, he would rather 
> the superior position be assigned to the white race.
>
> There in the middle of this mall is the Washington Monument, 555 feet 
> high. But if we put a 1 in front of that 555 feet, we get 1555, the 
> year that our first fathers landed on the shores of Jamestown, 
> Virginia, as slaves. In the background is the Jefferson and Lincoln 
> Memorial. Each one of these monuments is 19 feet high. Abraham 
> Lincoln, the 16th president, Thomas Jefferson the third president, and 
> 16 and 3 make 19 again. What is so deep about this number 19? Why are 
> we standing on the Capitol steps today? That number 19, when you have 
> a nine, you have a womb that is pregnant, and when you have a one 
> standing by the nine, it means that there's something secret that has 
> to be unfolded. Right here on this mall where we are standing, 
> according to books written on Washington, D.C., slaves used to be 
> brought right here on this mall in chains, to be sold up and down the 
> eastern seaboard. Right along this mall, going over to the White 
> House, our fathers were sold into slavery. But George Washington, the 
> first president of the United States, said he feared that before too 
> many years passed over his head, this slave would prove to become a 
> most troublesome species of property. Thomas Jefferson said he 
> trembled for this country when he reflected that God was just and that 
> his justice could not sleep forever. Well, the day that these 
> presidents feared has now come to pass, for on this mall here we stand 
> in the capital of America, and the layout of this great city, laid out 
> by a black man, Benjamin Banneker, this is all placed and based in a 
> secret Masonic ritual, and at the core of the secret of that ritual is 
> the black man. Not far from here is the White House, and the first 
> president of this land, George Washington, who was a grand master of 
> the Masonic Order, laid the foundation, the cornerstone, of this 
> Capitol building where we stand. George was a slave-owner. George was 
> a slave-owner.
>
> Now, the president spoke today and he wanted to heal the great divide. 
> But I respectfully suggest to the president, you did not dig deep 
> enough at the malady that divides black and white in order to affect a 
> solution to the problem. And so today we have to deal with the root so 
> that perhaps a healing can take place.
>
> Now, this obelisk at the Washington Monument is Egyptian, and this 
> whole layout is reminiscent of our great historic past, Egypt. And if 
> you look at the original seal of the United States, published by the 
> Department of State in 1909, Gaylord Hunt wrote that late in the 
> afternoon of July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress resolved that Dr. 
> Benjamin Franklin, Mr. John Adams and Mr. Thomas Jefferson be a 
> committee to prepare a device for a seal of the United States of 
> America. In the design proposed by the first committee, the face of 
> the seal was a coat of arms measured in six quarters. That number is 
> significant. Six quarters with emblems representing England, Scotland, 
> Ireland, France, Germany, and Holland, the countries from which the 
> new nation had been peopled. The eye of Providence in a radiant 
> triangle and the motto 'E Pluribus Unum' were also proposed for the 
> face of the seal. Even though the country was populated by so-called 
> Indians and black slaves were brought to build the country, the 
> official seal of the country was never designed to reflect our 
> presence, only that of the European immigrants. The seal and the 
> Constitution reflect the thinking of the Founding Fathers that this 
> was to be a nation by white people and for white people. Native 
> Americans, blacks, and all other non-white people were to be the 
> burden-bearers for the real citizens of this nation.
>
> For the back of the seal, the committee suggested a picture of a 
> pharaoh sitting in an open chariot with a crown on his head and a 
> sword in his hand passing through the divided waters of the Red Sea in 
> pursuit of the Israelites. And hovering over the sea was to be shown a 
> pillar of fire in a cloud, expressive of the divine presence and 
> command. And raised from this pillar of fire were to be shown beaming 
> down on Moses standing on the shore extending his hand over the sea 
> causing it to overwhelm the pharaoh. The motto for the reverse was 
> 'Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God.' Let me say it again, 
> 'Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God.' Now, why did they mention 
> pharaoh? I heard the president say today E Pluribus Unum, out of many, 
> one. But in the past out of many comes one meant out of many Europeans 
> come one people. The question today is out of the many Asians, the 
> many Arabs, the many Native Americans, the many blacks, the many 
> people of color who populate this country, do you mean for them to be 
> made into the one? If so, truth has to be spoken to justice. We can't 
> cover things up, cover them over, give it a pretty sound to make 
> people feel good. We have to go to the root of the problem.
>
> Now, why have you come today? You came, not at the call of Louis 
> Farrakhan, but you have gathered here at the call of God, for it is 
> only the call of Almighty God, no matter whom- through whom that call 
> came, that could generate this kind of outpouring. God called us here 
> to this place at this time for a very specific reason.
>
> And now I want to say, my brothers, this is a very pregnant moment, 
> pregnant with the possibility of tremendous change in our status in 
> America and in the world. And although the call was made through me, 
> many have tried to distance the beauty of this idea from the person 
> through whom the idea and the call was made. Some have done it 
> mistakenly, and others have done it in a malicious and vicious manner. 
> Brothers and sisters, there is no human being through whom God brings 
> an idea that history doesn't marry the idea with that human being no 
> matter what defect was in that human being's character. You can't 
> separate Newton from the law that Newton discovered, nor can you 
> separate Einstein from the theory of relativity. It would be silly to 
> try to separate Moses from the Torah or Jesus from the Gospel or 
> Mohammed from the Koran. Well, you said, ' Farrakhan, you ain't no 
> Moses. You ain't no Jesus, and you're not no Mohammed. You have a 
> defect in your character.' Well, that certainly may be so. However, 
> according to the way the Bible reads, there is no prophet of God 
> written of in the Bible that did not have a defect in his character. 
> But I have never heard any member of the faith of Judaism separate 
> David from the Psalms because of what happened in David's life, and 
> you never separated Solomon from the building of the temple because 
> they say he had 1,000 concubines. And you never separated any of the 
> great servants of God. So today, whether you like it or not, God 
> brought the idea through me. And he didn't bring it through me because 
> my heart was dark with hatred and anti-Semitism. He didn't bring it 
> through me because my heart was dark and I'm filled with hatred for 
> white people and for the human family of the planet. If my heart were 
> that dark, how is the message so bright, the message so clear, the 
> response so magnificent?
>
> And so we stand here today at this historic moment. We are standing in 
> the place of those who could not make it here today. We are standing 
> on the blood of our ancestors. We are standing on the blood of those 
> who died in the middle passage, who died in the fields and swamps of 
> America, who died hanging from trees in the South, who died in the 
> cells of their jailers, who died on the highways and who died in the 
> fratricidal conflict that rages within our community. We are standing 
> on the sacrifice of the lives of those heroes, our great men and 
> women, that we today may accept the responsibility that life imposes 
> upon each traveler who comes this way. We must accept the 
> responsibility that God has put upon us not only to be good husbands 
> and fathers and builders of our community, but God is now calling up 
> the despised and the rejected to become the cornerstone and the 
> builders of a new world.
>
> And so our brief subject today is taken from the American Constitution 
> and these words, 'Toward a more perfect union.' Toward a more perfect 
> union. Now, when you use the word more with perfect, that which is 
> perfect is that which has been brought to completion. So when you use 
> more perfect, you're either saying that what you call perfect is 
> perfect for that stage of its development, but not yet complete. When 
> Jefferson said, 'Toward a more perfect union,' he was admitting that 
> the union was not perfect, that it was not finished, that work had to 
> be done. _*And so we are gathered here today not to bash somebody 
> else. We're not gathered here to say all of the evils of this nation, 
> but we are gathered here to collect ourselves for a responsibility 
> that God is placing on our shoulders to move this nation toward a more 
> perfect union.*_
>
> Now, when you look at the word toward, toward, it means in the 
> direction of, in furtherance or partial fulfillment of, with a view to 
> obtaining or having, shortly before, coming soon, imminent, going on, 
> in progress. Well, that's right. We're in progress toward a perfect 
> union. Union means bringing elements or components into unity. It is 
> something formed by uniting two or more things. It is a number of 
> persons, states, et cetera, which are joined or associated together 
> for some common purpose. _*We're not here to tear down America. 
> America is tearing itself down. We are here to rebuild the wasted 
> cities. *_What we have in the word toward is motion. The Honorable 
> Elijah Mohammed taught us that motion is the first law of the 
> universe. This motion which takes us from one point to another shows 
> that we are evolving and we are a part of a universe that is ever 
> evolving. We are on an evolutionary course that will bring us to 
> perfection or completion of the process toward a perfect union with 
> God. In the word toward, there is a law, and that law is everything 
> that is created is in harmony with the law of evolution, change. 
> Nothing is standing still. It is either moving toward perfection or 
> moving toward disintegration or under certain circumstances doing both 
> things at the same time. The word for this evolutionary changing, 
> affecting stage after stage until we reach perfection, in Arabic it is 
> called rab, and from the word rab, you get the word rabbi, or teacher, 
> one who nourishes a people from one stage and brings them to another 
> stage.
>
> Well, if we are in motion, and we are, motion toward perfection, and 
> we are, there can be no motion toward perfection without the lord who 
> created the law of evolution and is the master of the changes. Our 
> first motion then must be toward the god who created the law of the 
> evolution of our being. And if our motion toward Him is right and 
> proper, then our motion toward a perfect union with each other and 
> with government and with the peoples of the world will be perfected. 
> So let us start where the process leading to the perfect union must 
> first be seen.
>
> Now, brothers and sisters, the day of atonement is established by God 
> to help us achieve a closer tie with the source of wisdom, knowledge, 
> understanding and power, for it is only through a closer union or tie 
> with Him who created us all, with Him who has power over all things, 
> that we can draw power, knowledge, wisdom and understanding, from Him 
> that we may be enabled to change the realities of our life. A perfect 
> union with God is the idea at the base of atonement.
>
> Now, atonement demands of us eight steps. In fact, atonement is the 
> fifth step in an eight-stage process. Look at our division, not here, 
> out there. We, as a people who have been fractured, divided and 
> destroyed because of our division, now must move toward a perfect 
> union. Let's look at a speech, delivered by a white slave holder on 
> the banks of the James River in 1712, 68 years before our former slave 
> masters permitted us to join the Christian faith. Listen to what he 
> said. He said, 'In my bag, I have a foolproof method of controlling 
> black slaves. I guarantee every one of you, if installed correctly, it 
> will control the slaves for at least 300 years. My method is simple. 
> Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I have outlined 
> a number of differences among the slaves, and I take these differences 
> and I make them bigger. I use fear, distrust and envy for control 
> purposes.' I want you to listen. What are those three things? Fear, 
> envy, distrust. For what purpose? Control. To control who? The slave. 
> Who is the slave? Us. Listen. He said, 'These methods have worked on 
> my modest plantation in the West Indies, and they will work throughout 
> the South. Now, take this simple little list, and think about it. On 
> the top of my list is Age, but it's only there because it starts with 
> an A, and the second is color or shade. There's intelligence, sex, 
> size of plantation, status of plantation, attitude of owners, whether 
> the slaves live in the valley or on a hill, north, east, south or 
> west, have fine hair or coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you 
> have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action. But 
> before that, I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than trust, 
> and envy is stronger than adulation, respect or admiration. The black 
> slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry it on and will 
> become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe 
> thousands of years. Now, don't forget, you must pitch the old black 
> male against the young black male and the young black male against the 
> old black male. You must use the female against the male, and you must 
> use the male against the female. You must use the dark-skinned slave 
> against the light-skinned slave and the light-skinned slave against 
> the dark-skinned slave. You must also have your white servants and 
> overseers distrust all blacks. But it is necessary that your slaves 
> trust and depend on us. They must love, respect, and trust only us. 
> Gentlemen, these keys are your keys to control. Use them. Never miss 
> an opportunity. And if used intensely for one year, the slaves 
> themselves will remain perpetually distrustful. Thank you, gentlemen.' 
> End of quote.
>
> So spoke Willy Lynch [sp] 283 years ago. And so, as a consequence, we, 
> as a people, now have been fractured, divided, and destroyed, filled 
> with fear, distrust, and envy. Therefore, because of fear, envy, and 
> distrust, of one another, many of us as leaders, teachers, educators, 
> pastors, and persons, are still under the control mechanism of our 
> former slave masters and their children.
>
> And now, in spite of all that division, in spite of all that 
> divisiveness, we responded to a call, and look at what is present here 
> today. We have here those brothers with means and those who have no 
> means, those who are light and those who are dark, those who are 
> educated, those who are uneducated; those who are business people, 
> those who don't know anything about business; those who are young, 
> those who are old; those who are scientific, those who know nothing of 
> science; those who are religious, and those who are irreligious; those 
> who are Christian, those who are Muslim, those who are Baptist, those 
> who are Methodist, those who are Episcopalian, those of traditional 
> African religion. We've got them all here today. And why did we come? 
> We came because we want to move toward a more perfect union.
>
> And if you notice, the press triggered every one of those divisions. 
> 'You shouldn't come, you're a Christian; that's a Muslim thing. You 
> shouldn't come, you're too intelligent to follow hate. You shouldn't 
> come, look at what they did, they excluded women, you see?' They 
> played all the cards. They pulled all the strings. Oh, but you better 
> look again, Willie. There's a new black man in America today, a new 
> black woman in America today, a new black woman in America today.
>
> Now, brothers, there's a social benefit of our gathering here today, 
> and that is that from this day forward we can never again see 
> ourselves through the narrow eyes of the limitation of the boundaries 
> of our own fraternal, civic, political, religious, street organization 
> or professional organization. We are forced by the magnitude of what 
> we see here today that whenever you return to your cities and you see 
> a black man, a black woman, don't ask him, 'What is your social, 
> political or religious affiliation, or what is your status.' Know that 
> he is your brother, and if he needs help, you are obligated to help 
> your brother because he is your brother. You must live beyond the 
> narrow restrictions of the divisions that have been imposed upon us.
>
> Well, some of us are here because it's history-making. Some of us are 
> here because it's a march through which we can express anger and rage 
> with America for what she has and is doing to us. So we're here for 
> many reasons. But the basic reason that this was called was for 
> atonement and reconciliation. So it is necessary for me, in as short a 
> time as possible, to give as full an explanation of atonement as possible.
>
> As I said earlier, atonement is the fifth stage in an eight-stage 
> process. So let's go back to the first stage of the process that 
> brings us into perfect union with God. And the first stage is the most 
> difficult of all, because when we are wrong and we are not aware of 
> it, someone has to point out the wrong. I want to say this again, but 
> I want to say it slowly, and I really want each one of these points to 
> sink in. How many of us in this audience at some time or another have 
> been wrong? Will we just raise our hands?
>
> OK. Now, when we are wrong, Lord knows we want to be right. The most 
> difficult thing is when somebody points it out. Do we accept it? Do we 
> reject it? Do we hate the person who pointed out our wrong? How do we 
> treat the person who points out our wrong?
>
> Now, I want you to follow me. When you go to a doctor, you're not 
> feeling well. The doctor says, 'What's wrong?' 'Well, I don't know, 
> Doc.' 'Well, where's the pain? Tell me something about the symptoms.' 
> You want the doctor to make a correct diagnosis. You don't smack the 
> doctor when he points out what's wrong. You don't hate the doctor when 
> he points out what's wrong. You say, 'Thank you, Doctor. What's my 
> prescription for healing?' Are we all right?
>
> Now, look. Whoever is entrusted with the task of pointing out wrong, 
> depending on the nature of the circumstances, is not always loved. In 
> fact, more than likely, that person is going to be hated and 
> misunderstood. Such persons are generally hated because no one wants 
> to be shown as being wrong, particularly, when you're dealing with 
> governments, with principalities, with powers, with rulers, with 
> administrations; when you're dealing with forces which have become 
> entrenched in the evil, intractable and unyielding, their power 
> produces an arrogance, and their arrogance produces a blindness. And 
> out of that evil state of mind, they will do all manner of evil to the 
> person who points out their wrong, even though you're doing good for 
> them by pointing out where America went wrong.
>
> Now Martin Luther King, Jr., was probably one of the most patriotic 
> Americans, more patriotic than George Washington, more patriotic than 
> Thomas Jefferson, more patriotic than many of the presidents, because 
> he had the courage to point out what was wrong in this society. And 
> because he pointed out what was wrong, he was evil spoken of, 
> vilified, maligned, hated, and eventually murdered.
>
> Brother Malcolm had that same road to travel. He pointed out what was 
> wrong in the society, and he had to suffer for pointing out what was 
> wrong, and he ultimately died on the altar for pointing out what was 
> wrong inside the nation, outside the nation, to the greater nation and 
> to the smaller nation.
>
> We're talking about moving toward a perfect union. Well, pointing out 
> fault, pointing out our wrongs, is the first step. The second step is 
> to acknowledge. 'Oh, thank you. Oh, man, I'm wrong.' To acknowledge 
> means to admit the existence, the reality, or the truth of some 
> reality. It is to recognize as being valid or having force and power. 
> It is to express thanks, appreciation or gratitude. So in this 
> context, the word 'acknowledgement' means to be in a state of 
> recognition of the truth of the fact that we have been wrong. This is 
> the second step.
>
> Well, the third step is that after you know you're wrong and you 
> acknowledge it to yourself, who else knows it except you confess it? 
> You say well, yeah, all right, but who should I confess to, and why 
> should I confess? The Bible says confession is good for the soul. Now, 
> brothers, I know I don't have a lot of time, but the soul is the 
> essence of a person's being, and when the soul is covered with guilt 
> from sin and wrong-doing, the mind and the actions of the person 
> reflect the condition of the soul. So, to free the soul or the essence 
> of man from its burden, one must acknowledge one's wrong, but then one 
> must confess. The Holy Koran says it like this, 'I have been greatly 
> unjust to myself and I confess my faults. So grant me protection 
> against all my faults, for none grants protection against faults but 
> thee.' It is only through confession that we can be granted protection 
> from the consequences of our faults, for every deed has a consequence. 
> And we can never be granted protection against a fault that we refuse 
> to acknowledge or that we are unwilling to confess.
>
> So, look, who should you confess to? 'I don't want to confess.' Who 
> should you confess to? Who should I confess to? Who should we confess to?
>
> First, you confess to God. And every one of us that are here today 
> that know that we have done wrong, we have to go to God and speak to 
> Him in the privacy of our room and confess. He already knows, but when 
> you confess, you're relieving your soul of the burden that is there.
>
> But then, the hardest part is to go to the person or persons whom your 
> fault has ill affected and confess to them. That's hard. That's hard.
>
> But, if we want a perfect union, we have to confess the fault. But 
> what happens after confession? There must be repentance. When you 
> repent, you feel remorse of contrition or shame for the past conduct 
> which was and is wrong and sinful. It means to feel contrition or 
> self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do. And it is the 
> experiencing of such regret for past conduct that involves the 
> changing of our mind toward that sin. So until we repent and feel 
> sick, sorry, over what we have done, we can never, never change our 
> mind toward that thing. And if you don't repent, you'll do it over and 
> over and over again. But to stop it where it is- and black men, we've 
> got to stop what we're doing where it is. We cannot continue the 
> destruction of our lives and the destruction of our community. But 
> that change can't come until we feel sorry.
>
> I heard my brother from the West Coast say today, 'I atone to the 
> mothers for the death of the babies caused by our senseless slaughter 
> of one another.' See, when he feels sorry deep down inside, he's going 
> to make a change. That man has a change in his mind. That man has a 
> change in his heart. His soul has been unburdened and released from 
> the pain of that sin. But you've got to go one step further, because 
> after you've acknowledged it, confessed it, repented, you come to the 
> fifth stage. Now you've got to do something about it.
>
> Now, look, brothers, sisters, some people don't mind confessing. Some 
> people don't mind making some slight repentance. But when it comes to 
> doing something about the evil that we've done, we fall short. But 
> atonement means satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury. It 
> means to make amends. It means penance, expiation, compensation, and 
> recompense made or done, for an injury or wrong. So atonement means we 
> must be willing to do something in expiation of our sins. *_So we 
> can't just have a good time today and say we made history in 
> Washington. We've got to resolve today that we're going back home to 
> do something about what's going on in our lives and in our families 
> and in our communities. _
> *
>
> [Applause.]
>
> Now, are we all right? Can you hang with me a few more? Now, brothers 
> and sisters, if we make atonement, it leads to the sixth stage, and 
> the sixth stage is forgiveness. Now, so many of us want forgiveness, 
> but we don't want to go through the process that leads to it, and so 
> when we say we forgive, we forgive from our lips, but we have never 
> pardoned in the heart, so the injury still remains.
>
> My dear family, my dear brothers, we need forgiveness. God is always 
> ready to forgive us for our failures. Forgiveness means to grant 
> pardon for, or remission of, an offense or sin. It is to absolve, to 
> clear, to exonerate and to liberate. Boy, that's something. _*See, 
> you're not liberated until you can forgive.*_ You're not liberated 
> from the evil effect of our own sin until we can ask God for 
> forgiveness and then forgive others. And this is why in the Lord's 
> Prayer you say, 'Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who 
> trespass against us.' So it means to cease to feel offense and 
> resentment against another for the harm done by an offender. It means 
> to wipe the slate clean.
>
> And then that leads to the seventh stage. You know, I like to liken 
> this to music, because in music, the seventh note is called a leading 
> tone - [singing] do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti - you can't stop there - 
> ti - it leaves you hung up - ti - what you got to get back to? - do. 
> So, whatever you started with, when you reach the eighth note, you're 
> back to where you started, only at a higher vibration.
>
> Now, look at this. The seventh tone, the leading tone, that leads to 
> the perfect union with God, is reconciliation and restoration, because 
> after forgiveness, now, we are going to be restored to what? To our 
> original position. To restore, to reconcile means to become friendly, 
> peaceable again, to put hostile persons into a state of agreement or 
> harmony, to make compatible or to compose or settle what it was that 
> made for division. It means to resolve differences. It can mean to 
> establish or reestablish a close relationship between previously 
> hostile persons. So restoration means the act of returning something 
> to an original or unimpaired condition.
>
> Now, when you're back to an unimpaired position, you have reached the 
> eighth stage, which is perfect union. And when we go through all these 
> steps, there is no difference between us that we can't heal. There's a 
> balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. There is a balm in Gilead to 
> make the wounded whole. We are a wounded people, but we are being healed.
>
> _*But, President Clinton, America is also wounded, and there's 
> hostility now in the great divide between the people. Socially, the 
> fabric of America is being torn apart, and it's black against black, 
> black against white, white against white, white against black, yellow 
> against brown, brown against yellow. **We are being torn apart, and we 
> can't gloss it over with nice speeches, my dear Mr. President.*_
>
> _*Sir, with all due respect, that was a great speech you made today. 
> And you praised the marchers, and they are worthy of praise. You 
> honored the marchers, and they are worthy of honor. But, of course, 
> you spoke ill, indirectly, of me as a purveyor of malice and hatred. I 
> must hasten to tell you, Mr. President, that I'm not a malicious 
> person, and I'm not filled with malice. But I must tell you that I 
> come in the tradition of the doctor who has to point out, with truth, 
> what's wrong. And the pain is that power has made America arrogant. 
> Power and wealth has made America spiritually blind. And **the power 
> and the arrogance of America makes you refuse to hear a child of your 
> slaves pointing out the wrong in your society.*_
>
> But I think if you could clear the scales from your eyes, sir, and 
> give ear to what we say, perhaps, oh, perhaps, what these great 
> speakers who spoke before me said, and my great and wonderful brother, 
> the Reverend Jesse Jackson said; and perhaps, just perhaps, from the 
> children of slaves might come a solution to this pharaoh and this 
> Egypt, as it was with Joseph, when they had to get him out of prison 
> and wash him up and clean him up because Pharaoh had some troubling 
> dreams that he didn't have any answer to. And he called his 
> soothsayers, and he called the people that read the stars, and he 
> called all his advisers, but nobody could help him to solve the 
> problem. But he had to go to the children of slaves, because he heard 
> that there was one in prison who knew the interpretation of dreams. 
> And he said, 'Bring him. Bring him, and let me hear what he has to say.'
>
> God has put it for you in the Scriptures, Mr. President. Belshazzar 
> and Nebuchadnezzar couldn't read the handwriting on the wall. But 
> Daniel had to read the handwriting for him. [quotes in Hebrew.] 'Your 
> kingdom has been weighed in the palace and has been found wanting.'
>
> _*Do you want a solution to the dilemma that America faces? Then don't 
> look at our skin color, because racism will cause you to reject 
> salvation if it comes in the skin of a black person. Don't look at the 
> kinkiness of our hair and the broadness of our nose and the thickness 
> of our lips, but listen to the beat of our hearts and the pulsating 
> rhythm of the truth. Perhaps, perhaps, you might be as wise as the 
> pharaoh and save this great nation.*_
>
> And so the eighth stage is perfect union with God. And in the Koran it 
> reads, 'Oh, soul that is at rest, well pleased with thy Lord, and well 
> pleasing.' Oh, brothers, brothers, brothers, you don't know what it's 
> like to be free. Freedom can't come from white folks. Freedom can't 
> come from staying here and petitioning this great government. We're 
> here to make a statement to the great government, but not to beg them. 
> Freedom cannot come from no one but the God who can liberate the soul 
> from the burden of sin. And this is why Jesus said, 'Come unto me,' 
> not 'some' who are heavy laden, but 'all' that are heavy laden, and I 
> will give you rest.
>
> But, listen, all of these eight steps take place in a process called 
> time. And whenever a nation is involved in sin, to the point that God 
> intends to judge and destroy that nation, He always sends someone to 
> make that nation or people know their sins, to reflect on it, to 
> acknowledge, to confess, to repent, and to atone, that they might find 
> forgiveness with God.
>
> America, oh America. This great city of Washington is like Jerusalem. 
> And the Bible says, 'Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, you that stoneth and 
> killeth the prophets of God.' Right from this beautiful Capitol and 
> from the beautiful White House have come commands to kill the 
> prophets. Garvey's trouble came from this house. Martin Luther King's 
> trouble came from this house. Malcolm's trouble came from this house. 
> W.E.B. Dubois' trouble came from this house. And from this house, you 
> stoned and killed the prophets of God that would have liberated black 
> people, liberated America. But I stand here today, knowing, knowing 
> that you are angry, that my people have validated me. I don't need you 
> to validate me.
>
> [crowd responds]
>
> I don't need to be in any mainstream. I want to wash in the river of 
> Jordan. And the river that you see, and the sea that is before us and 
> behind us and around us is validation. That's the mainstream.
>
> You're out of touch with reality. A few of you in a few smoke-filled 
> rooms, calling that the mainstream, while the masses of the people, 
> white and black; red, yellow and brown; poor and vulnerable are 
> suffering in this nation.
>
> Well, America, great America, like Jerusalem that stoned and killed 
> the prophets of God, that a work has been done in you today unlike any 
> work that's ever been done in this great city. I wonder what you'll 
> say tomorrow. I wonder what you'll write in your newspapers and 
> magazines tomorrow. Will you give God the glory? Will you give God the 
> glory? Will you respect the beauty of this day? All of these black men 
> that the world sees as savage, maniacal and bestial, look at them - a 
> sea of peace, a sea of tranquility, a sea of men ready to come back to 
> God, settle their differences and go back home to turn our communities 
> into decent and safe places to live.
>
> _*AMERICA, AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL! There's no country like this on the 
> Earth.* *And certainly if I lived in another country, I might never 
> have had the opportunity to speak as I speak today. I probably would 
> have been shot outright, and so would my brother Jesse, and so would 
> Maolana Karenga [sp], and so would Dr. Ben Chavis and Reverend Al 
> Sampson and all the wonderful people that are here. **But because this 
> is America, you allow me to speak even though you don't like what I 
> may say. Because this is America, that provision in the Constitution 
> for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and freedom of religion, 
> that is your saving grace, because what you're under right now is 
> grace, and grace is the expression of divine love and protection which 
> God bestows freely on people.*_
>
> _*God is angry, America. He's angry, but his mercy is still present.*_
>
> *Brothers and sisters, look at the afflictions that have come upon us 
> in the black community. Do you know why we're being afflicted? God 
> wants us to humble ourselves to the message that will make us atone 
> and come back to him and make ourselves whole again.*
>
> *Well, why is God afflicting America? Why is God afflicting the world? 
> Why did Jesus say there would be wars and rumors of wars and 
> earthquakes in diverse places and pestilence and famine? And why did 
> he say that these were just the beginning of sorrows? In the last 10 
> years America has experienced more calamities than at any other time 
> period in American history. Why, America? God is angry. He's not angry 
> because you're right, he's angry because you're wrong and you want to 
> stone and kill the people who want to make you see you're wrong.*
>
> *And so the Bible says Elijah must first come. Why should Elijah come? 
> Elijah has the job of turning the hearts of the children back to their 
> fathers and the father's heart back to the children. Elijah becomes an 
> axis upon which people turn back to God and God turns back to the 
> people. And that's why they said Elijah must first come.*
>
> *And so here we are, 400 years fulfilling Abraham's prophecy. Some of 
> our friends in the religious community have said why should you take 
> atonement? That was for the children of Israel. I say yes, it was. But 
> atonement for the children of Israel prefigured our suffering here in 
> America.*
>
> *Israel was in bondage to Pharaoh 400 years. We've been in America 440 
> years. They were under affliction. We're under affliction. They're 
> under oppression. We're under oppression. God said, 'That nation which 
> they shall serve I will judge.'*
>
> _*Judgment means God is making a decision against systems, against 
> institutions, against principalities and powers, *_*and that's why 
> Paul said, 'We war not against flesh and blood, but against 
> principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world 
> and spiritual wickedness in high places.'*
>
> *God is sending His decision. I can't help it if I've got to make the 
> decision. No. You don't understand me. My people love me, and yet - *
>
> [crowd responds]
>
> _- *and yet I point out the evils of black people like no other leader 
> does.* *But my people don't call me anti-black, because they know I 
> must love them in order to point out what's wrong, so we can get it 
> right, to come back into the favor of God.*_
>
> _*But let me say, in truth, you can't point out wrong with malice.* 
> *You can't point out wrong with hatred, because if we point out wrong 
> with bitterness and hatred, then the bitterness and the hatred becomes 
> a barrier between you and the person whom you hope to get right, that 
> they might come into the favor of God.*_
>
> _*So we, as Muslims, who, in our first stage - yeah, we pointed out 
> the wrong of America, but we didn't point it out with no love. We 
> pointed it out with the pain of our hurt, the pain of our suffering, 
> the bitterness of our life story. *_
>
> [crowd responds] *
> *
>
> *_But we have grown beyond our bitterness. We have transcended beyond 
> our pain. Why? It's easy for us to say, 'The white man did this. The 
> white man did that. The white man did the other. The white man did 
> this. He deprived us of that. He killed the Indians. He did this.' 
> Yes, he did all of that. But, why did God let him do that?  __That's 
> the bigger question._*_ _
>
> _*And since we are not man enough to question God, we start beating up 
> on the agent who is fulfilling prophecy.*_
>
> *But if we can transcend our pain to get up into God's mind and ask 
> God, 'God, why did you let our fathers come into bondage? God, why did 
> you let is die in the middle passage? God, why did you suffer us to be 
> in the hulls of ships? God, why did you let him lash us? Why did you 
> let him beat us? Why did you let him castrate us? Why did you let him 
> hang us? Why did you let him burn us? Why, God? Why? Why? Why'? We've 
> got a right to question God. That's the only way we can become wise. 
> And if we question him like Job, God may bring you up into His own 
> thinking.*
>
> *And if God were to answer us today, He would say to black people, 
> 'Yes, I allowed this to happen, and I know you suffered. But Martin 
> King, my servant, said undeserved suffering is redemptive. A whole 
> world is lost, not just you black people. A whole world has gone out 
> of the way, not just you black people.' You're the lost sheep, but the 
> whole world is lost. You're the bottom rail but the one that put you 
> on the bottom has been in the bottom with you holding you down. He's 
> in the bottomless pit himself. He said, 'Black man, I love you.' He 
> said, 'But God, I mean, that's a heck of a way to show me you love 
> me.' He said, 'But I love my son. I love Jesus more than I love any of 
> my servants. But I had a cross for Him. I had nails for Him. I had him 
> to be rejected and despised. I had Him falsely accused and brought 
> before the courts of men. I had them spit on Him. I had them to pierce 
> His side, but I loved Him more than anybody else.'*
>
> *Why God? Why did you do it? Why? He said, 'I did it that I might be 
> glorified because like Job no matter what I did to Him he never cursed 
> me. He never said, my God ain't no good.' He said, 'Whatever your will 
> is.' And that's what I want to do and that's why. Even though he 
> descended into hell, I have raised him to the limitless heights of 
> heaven because only those who know the depths of hell can appreciate 
> the limitless heights of heaven. And so, my children, I cause you to 
> suffer in the furnace of affliction so that I might purify you and 
> resurrect you from a grave of death and ignorance.*
>
> *I, God, put in your soul not a law written on stone, but I have 
> written a law on the tablets of your heart. So I'm going to make a new 
> covenant with you. *Oh, black man, the secret of the Masonic order is 
> the secret of Hiram of [unintelligible]. The secret of the Masonic 
> order is a master builder that was hit in the head. The secret of the 
> Masonic order is a master that ruffians roughed up. I think one of the 
> ruffians was named Jubelo [sp] Fuhrman. And another one was named 
> Jubala Bilbo [sp]. And another was named Jubulum [sp] Jesse Helms. 
> These racists, hit him in His head and carried Him on a westerly 
> course and buried Him in the north country, in a shallow grave. Many 
> tried to raise Him up but they didn't have the master grip. It take a 
> master to come after Him.
>
> And this is why Matthew said, 'As lightening shines from the East even 
> unto the West, so shall the coming of the son of man be, for 
> wheresoever the eagles are gathered together, there shall the carcass 
> speak.' Here's the carcass, the remains of a once mighty people, dry 
> bones in the valley. And people slain from the foundation of the 
> world. But God has sent the winds to blow on the bones. One of those 
> winds is named Gingrich. And the companion wind is named Dole. And the 
> other is called Supreme Court decision. The other is fratricidal 
> conflict - drugs and dope and violence and crime.
>
> But we've had enough now. This is why you're in Washington today. 
> We've had enough. We've had enough distress, enough affliction. We're 
> ready to bow down now. 'If my people who are called by my name will 
> just humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their 
> wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sins, heal 
> their land.'
>
> You are ready now to come out of your furnace of affliction. You are 
> ready now to accept the responsibility, oh, not just of the ghetto. 
> God wants to purify you and lift you up, that you may call America and 
> the world to repentance. Black man, you are a master builder, but you 
> got hit in the head. Black man, you are the descendants of the 
> builders of the pyramids, but you have amnesia now. You can't remember 
> how you did it. But the master has come.
>
> You know, pastors, I love that scripture where Jesus told his 
> disciples, go there and you'll see an ass and a colt tied with her. 
> Untie them and bring them to me. If anybody asks you what you're 
> doing, because it may look like you're stealing, and you know they 
> love to accuse you of stealing, tell them the master got need of 
> these. And Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass. The Democratic Party 
> has for its symbol a donkey. The donkey stands for the unlearned 
> masses of the people. But the Democratic Party can't call the masses 
> no more. You got them all tied up, but you're not using them. The 
> donkey's tied up. But can you get off today? No, I can't get off, I 
> tied up. Somebody on your donkey? Well, yeah. I got a master, he rides 
> me like the master rode Balaam's ass, you know? But, hell, the ass is 
> now talking with a man's voice, and the ass want to throw the rider 
> off 'cause he got a new rider today. If anybody ask you, tell them the 
> master has need.
>
> Look at you. Well, I don't know what the number. It's too much for me 
> to count. But I think they said it's a million-and-a-half or two. I 
> don't know how many. But you know I called for a million. When I saw 
> the word go out my mouth I looked at it. I said, 'Oh, my God.' It just 
> came out of my mouth. I didn't know. And after it came out, I said, 
> 'Well, I got to go with it.' And I'm so glad I did. People told me, 
> 'You better that figure to one more realistic.' And I should have 
> changed to the Three Million Man March. [applause]
>
> Now, we almost finished. I want to take one last look at the word 
> atonement. The first four letters of the word form the foundation 
> a-t-o-n, aton. Aton. Since this obelisk in front of us is 
> representative of Egypt and the 18th dynasty, a pharaoh Akhenaton was 
> the first man of this history period to destroy the pantheon of many 
> gods and bring the people of the worship of one god, and that one god 
> was symboled by a sun disk with 19 rays coming out of that sun with 
> hands holding Egyptian ankh, the cross of life. Aton. The name for the 
> one god in ancient Egypt.
>
> Aton, the one god, 19 rays Look at your scripture. A woman, remember 
> the nine? Means somebody pregnant with an idea. But in this case, it's 
> a woman pregnant with a male child destined to rule the nations where 
> they're all divine. God is standing over her womb, and this child will 
> be like the day's sun. And he will say I am the light of the world. 
> Hands coming out of that sun - come unto me, all ye that are heavy 
> laden. I'm gonna give you respite. I'm going to give you life because 
> I am the resurrection and the life, and if you believe in me, though 
> you are dead, yet shall you live again.
>
> You're dead, black man. But if you believe in the God who created this 
> sun of truth and of light with 19 rays meaning he's pregnant with 
> God's spirit, God's light, God's wisdom. Abraham Lincoln's statue, 19 
> feet high, 19 feet wide. Jefferson, 19 feet high, and the third 
> president, 19, standing on the steps of the Capitol in the light of 
> the sun, offering life to a people who are dead. Black man, be atoned, 
> represents the one God.
>
> In the Koran, Muhammad is called a light-giving sun. So if you look at 
> the aton, add an E to it, and separate the A from the next four 
> letters and you get the word atone. Tone means sound and A, the first 
> letter of the alphabet. And the first letter of the numerical system 
> is one, so A equals one. So A sound means when you hear the A tone you 
> will hear the right sound. And when you hear the right sound from the 
> one God calling you to divine light, you will respond.
>
> So what is the A tone? In music, A equals 440 vibrations. How long 
> have we been in America? Four hundred and forty years. Well, in the 
> 440th year from the one God, the aton, will come the atone, and all of 
> us got to tune up our lives by the sound of the A tone because we've 
> got to atone for all that we have done wrong. And when you atone, if 
> you take the T and couple it with the A and hyphenate it, you get 
> at-one. So when you atone you become at-one. At-one with who? The 
> aton, or the one God. Because you heard the A tone and you tuned up 
> your life, and now you're ready to make a new beginning. So when you 
> get at-one you get the next two letters, it is ME. Me. *_
> _*
>
> _*Louis Farrakhan: *_*_Who is it that has to atone? Who?_*
>
> _*Audience: Me.*_
>
> _*Louis Farrakhan: Who went wrong?*_
>
> _*Audience: Me.*_
>
> _*Louis Farrakhan: Who got to fix it?*_
>
> _*Audience: Me*_
>
> _*Louis Farrakhan: Who should we look to?*_
>
> _*Audience: Me*_
>
> _*Louis Farrakhan: Yes. And then if you add, if you add another letter 
> to m-e, you get an N. What does that say?*_
>
> _*Audience: Men!*_
>
> _*Louis Farrakhan: Men. So, Farrakhan called men. Why did you call 
> men? Because in the beginning, God made man and if we are at a new 
> beginning, we gotta make a man all over again, but make him in the 
> image and the likeness of God.*_
>
> [applause]
>
> Now if you add the T on, you get the suffix ment. Ment means action, 
> process, the instrument or agent of an action or process. So when you 
> say, I'm atoning, you gotta act on it. You gotta get in the process. 
> You go to acknowledge your own, confess your own, repent of your own, 
> atone for your own. Huh? Then you'll get forgiveness, then 
> reconciliation and restoration and then you're back to the A-tone. Oh 
> Lord. Now brothers, let's close it out. Don't move. Don't move.
>
> Now, you know, the bible says in the 430th of their sojourn, they went 
> out. That's in a book called Exodus. Now, the word exodus means 
> departure, a going our, a way out. What did we come to Washington for? 
> We didn't come to Washington to petition the government for a way out 
> of hurt. But to find a way out of our affliction. But a way out from 
> something bigger then our affliction. Oh man. When you say, come out, 
> what do you mean? You've got to come out from under the mind of a 
> slave. We've got to come out from a mind that is self afflicted with 
> the evil of black inferiority. We gotta come in to a new way thinking. 
> Now, brothers, sisters, I want to close this lecture with a special 
> message to our President and to the Congress. There is a great divide. 
> But the real evil in America is not white flesh or black flesh. The 
> real evil in America is the idea that undergirds the set up of the 
> Western world and that idea is called white supremacy. Now, wait, 
> wait, wait before you get angry, those of you listening by television. 
> You don't even know why you behave the way you behave. I'm not telling 
> you I'm a psychiatrist. But I do want to operate on your head. *_White 
> supremacy is the enemy of both white people and black people._ 
> *Because the idea of white supremacy means you should rule because 
> your white-That makes you sick. And you produce the sick society and a 
> sick world.
>
> The founding fathers meant well, but they said, 'Toward a more perfect 
> union.' So the Bible says, 'We know in part; we prophecy in part; but 
> when that which is perfect has come that which is in part, you'll be 
> done away with.'
>
> _*So either, Mr. Clinton, we're going to do away with the mind-set of 
> the founding fathers. You don't have to repudiate them like you've 
> asked my brothers to do me. You don't have to say they were malicious, 
> hate-filled people. But you must evolve out of their mind set. You see 
> their mind was limited to those six European nations out of which this 
> country was founded.*_
>
> _*But you got Asians here. How you going to handle that?*_* *_*
> *_
>
> _*You got children of Africa here; how you going to handle that?*_* *_*
> *_
>
> _*You got Arabs here.*_
>
> _*You got Hispanics here. I know you call them 'illegal aliens,' but, 
> hell, you took Texas from them by flooding Texas with people that got 
> your mind - *_
>
> [laughs].
>
> _*And now they're coming back, across the border, to what is northern 
> Mexico: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. They don't see 
> themselves as illegal aliens. I think they might see you as an illegal 
> alien.
> *_
>
> _*You have to be careful how you talk to people.*_* *_*
> *_
>
> _*You have to be careful how you deal with people.*_
>
> _*The Native American is suffering today.
> *_
>
> _*He's suffering almost complete extinction.
> *_
>
> _*Now he learned about bingo. You taught him. He learned about 
> blackjack. You taught him. He learned about playing roulette. You 
> taught him. Now he's making a lot of money. You're upset with him 
> because he's adopted your ways. What makes you like this? See, you're 
> like this because you're not well. *_
>
> [crowd responds]
>
> *_You're not well. And in the light of today's global village, you can 
> never harmonize with the Asians, you can't harmonize with the islands 
> of the Pacific, you can't harmonize with the dark people of the world, 
> who out-number you 11 to 1, if you're going to stay in the mind of 
> white supremacy. _
> *
>
> _*White supremacy has to die in order for humanity to live.*_
>
> _*Now, all- I know, I know, I know. I know it's painful, but we have 
> to operate now. Just take a little of this morphine and you won't feel 
> the pain as much. You just need to bite down on something as I start 
> this last few minutes. Just bite down on your finger.*_
>
> *_Listen._
> *
>
> *_Listen._
> *
>
> *_Listen._
> *
>
> _*Listen.*_
>
> *_White supremacy caused you all - not you all, some white folk--to 
> try to rewrite history and write us out. __White supremacy caused 
> Napoleon to blow the nose off of the Sphinx because it reminded you 
> too much of the black man's majesty. White supremacy caused you to 
> take Jesus, a man with hair like lamb's wool and feet like burnished 
> brass, and make Him white so that you could worship Him because you 
> could never see yourself honoring somebody black because of the state 
> of your mind. You see, you really need help. _*
>
> [crowd responds]
>
> _*You'll be all right. You WILL be all right!*_
>
> Now, now, now. You painted the 'Last Supper.' Everybody there [is] 
> white. My mother asked the man that came to bring her the Bible, she 
> said, 'Look, there are pictures in the Bible. You see? Jesus and all 
> his disciples at the last supper.' My mother, in her West Indian 
> accent, said, "You mean, ain't nobody black was at the last supper'? 
> And the man said, 'Yes; but they was in the kitchen.' So now you've 
> whitened up everything. Any great invention that we make, you put 
> white on it because you didn't want to admit that a black person had 
> that intelligence, that genius. You try to color everything to make it 
> satisfactory to the sickness of your mind. So you whitened up 
> religion. Farrakhan didn't do that. You locked the Bible from us. 
> Farrakhan didn't do that. Your sick mind wouldn't even let you bury us 
> in the same ground that both of us came out of; we had to be buried 
> somewhere else. That's sick.
>
> Some of us died just to drink water out of a fountain marked 'White.' 
> That's sick. Isn't it sick? You poisoned religion. And in all the 
> churches until recently, the master was painted white. So you had us 
> bowing down to your image, which ill-affected our minds. You gave us 
> your version of history, and you whitened that up. Yes, you did. Yes, 
> you did. Yes, you did. You are a white shriner. The black shriner 
> don't integrate the shrine. Why don't you black shriners integrate the 
> shrine? Because in the shrine you're the essence of the secret. They 
> don't want you there. They'll have to tell the world it's you we've 
> been thinking about all along.
>
> _*Now, white folks, see, the reason you could look at the O.J. Simpson 
> trial in Harlem and the reason black folk rejoiced had nothing to do 
> with the horror of the tragedy. Black folk would never rejoice over 
> the slaughter of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. Black folk saw 
> that with compassion. Many black folk grieved over that reality. *_
>
> [crowd responds]
>
> _*You say 'O.J. sold out.' No, he didn't sell out. He was drawn out.*_
>
> *_Black folk, they've got talent.
> _*
>
> *_They all grew up in the 'hood.
> _*
>
> *_When we sing, we sing in these old raunchy nightclubs in the 'hood.
> _*
>
> *_When we play sandlot ball, we play it in the 'hood.
> _*
>
> *_But when you spot us, you draw us out. You say, 'That negro can 
> run.' 'Look at how high he jumps.' So you give us a scholarship to 
> your university. __
> _*
>
> *_But the blacks who are in college who play basketball for you, who 
> play football for you, who run track for you, you disallow them to get 
> involved with black students and the suffering of black students on 
> all-white campuses. You hide them away, give them privileges, then 
> they find themself with your daughter.
> _*
>
> *_Then you take them into the NBA, the NFL, and they become mega-stars 
> or in the entertainment field. And when they become mega-stars, their 
> association is no longer black. They may not have a black manager, a 
> black agent, a black accountant. They meet in parties in posh 
> neighborhoods that black folk don't come into, so their association 
> becomes white women, white men, and association breeds assimilation.
> _*
>
> *_And if you have a slave mentality, you feel you have arrived now 
> because you can jump over cars running in airports, or play in films._*
>
> _*I'm not degrading my brother; I love him.
> *_
>
> _*But he was drawn out.
> *_
>
> _*He didn't sell out, he was drawn out.
> *_
>
> _*Michael Jackson is drawn out.
> *_
>
> _*Most of our top stars are drawn out.
> *_
>
> _*And then when you get them, you imprison them with fear and 
> distrust. You don't want them to speak out on the issues that are 
> political, that are social. They must shut their mouths, or you 
> threaten to take away their fame, take away their fortune, because 
> you're sick.*_
>
> And the president is not going to point this out. He's trying to get 
> well, but he's a physician that can't heal himself.
>
> I'm almost finished.
>
> White supremacy has poisoned the bloodstream of religion, education, 
> politics, jurisprudence, economics, social ethics and morality. And 
> there is no way that we can integrate into white supremacy and hold 
> our dignity as human beings, because if we integrate into that, we've 
> become subservient to that, and to become subservient to that is to 
> make the slave master comfortable with his slave.
>
> So we've got to come out of her, my people. Come out of a system and a 
> world that is built on the wrong idea, an idea that never can create a 
> perfect union with God. The false idea of white supremacy prevents 
> anyone from becoming one with God. White people have to come out of 
> that idea, which has poisoned them into a false attitude of 
> superiority based on the color of the skin. The doctrine of white 
> supremacy disallows whites to grow to their full potential. It forces 
> white people to see themselves as the law or above the law. And that's 
> why Fuhrman could say that he is like a god. See, he thinks like that. 
> But that idea is pervasive in police departments across the country, 
> and it's getting worse and not better, because white supremacy is not 
> being challenged. And I say to all of us who are leaders, all of us 
> who are preachers, we must not shrink from the responsibility of 
> pointing out wrong so that we can be comfortable and keep white people 
> comfortable in their alienation from God.
>
> And so, white folks are having heart attacks today because their world 
> is coming down. And if you look at the Asians, the Asians have the 
> fastest-growing economies in the world. The Asians are not saying - 
> bashing white people. You don't find the Asians saying, 'The white man 
> is this. The white man is the that. The white man is the other.' He 
> don't talk like that. You know what he does? He just relocates the top 
> banks from Wall Street to Tokyo. He don't say, 'I'm better than the 
> white man.' He just starts building his world and building his economy 
> and challenging white supremacy. I saw a young, 14-year-old Chinese 
> girl the other day play the violin; Sara Chang [sp] is her name. She 
> was magnificent. I saw a young Japanese girl, Midori [sp], play the 
> violin. She was magnificent. They don't have to say to white people, 
> 'I'm better than you.' They just do their thing, and white folk have 
> to readjust their thinking because they thought they could master all 
> these instruments and nobody else could. But the Chinese are mastering 
> it, the Japanese are mastering it. All these things are breaking up 
> the mind of white supremacy.
>
> _*Black man, you don't have to bash white people.
> *_
>
> _*All we've got to do is go back home and turn our communities into 
> productive places.
> *_
>
> _*All we've got to do is go back home and make our communities a 
> decent and safe place to live.
> *_
>
> _*And if we start dotting the black community with businesses, opening 
> up factories, challenging ourselves to be better than we are, white 
> folk, instead of driving by using the 'n' word, they'll say, 'Look, 
> look at them. Oh, my god. They're marvelous. They're wonderful. We 
> can't- we can't say they're inferior anymore.'*_
>
> But every time we drive by shooting, every time we car-jack, every 
> time we use foul, filthy language, every time we produce culturally 
> degenerate films and tapes, putting a string in our women's backside 
> and parading them before the world, every time we do things like this 
> we are feeding the degenerate mind of white supremacy. And I want us 
> to stop feeding that mind and let that mind die a natural death.
>
> And so to all the artists that are present, you wonderful, gifted 
> artists, remember that your gift comes from God. And David the 
> psalmist said, 'Praise him on the timbrel, praise him on the lute, 
> praise him on the harp, praise him in the psaltry, praise him in the 
> song, praise him in the dance, let everything be a praise of God.' So 
> when you sing, you don't have to get naked to sing. Demonstrate your 
> gift, not your breast. Demonstrate your gift, not what is between your 
> legs. Clean up, black man, and the world will respect and honor you.
>
> But you have fallen down like the prodigal son and you're husking corn 
> and feeding swine. Filthy jokes. We can't bring our children to the 
> television, we can't bring our families to the movies because the 
> American people have an appetite like a swine. And you are feeding the 
> swine with the filth of degenerate culture. We got to stop it.
>
> We're not putting you down, brothers. We want to pick you up, so with 
> your rap you can pick up the world, with your song you can pick up the 
> world, with your dance, with your music you can pick up the world.
>
> And so, America, if your conscience is afflicted because God is 
> lashing you, don't just start with the Constitution, Mr. President, 
> start with the evil of slavery, because that's the root of the 
> problem. And you can't solve the problem, Mr. President, unless we 
> expose the root; for when you expose the root to the light, then the 
> root will die. The tree will die, and something new can come to birth.
>
> And so to the whites of this nation, 'Except you be born again, you 
> cannot see the kingdom of God.' But can I return back into my mother's 
> womb for the second time? No, you can't do that. But this old mind of 
> white supremacy has to die in order that a new mind might come to birth.
>
> Black men, you can't see the kingdom of God unless we born again. Must 
> I enter back into my mother's womb for a second time? No, you can't do 
> that, black man. But the mind of white supremacy is repulsive to God, 
> and the mind of black inferiority is repulsive to God. And any mind of 
> black supremacy is repulsive to God. But the only mind that God will 
> accept is a mind stayed on Him and on righteousness. [crowd responds]
>
> Black had to be taught to give us root and love in ourselves again. 
> But that was a medicine, a prescription. But after health is restored, 
> we can't keep taking the medicine. We got to move on to something 
> else, higher and better.
>
> So, my beloved brothers and sisters, here's what we would like you to 
> do. Everyone of you, my dear brothers, when you go home, here's what I 
> want you to do. We must belong to some organization that is working 
> for, and in the interests of, the uplift and the liberation of our 
> people. Go back, join the NAACP if you want to. Join the Urban League. 
> Join the all African People's Revolutionary Party. Join us; join the 
> Nation of Islam. Join PUSH. Join the Congress of Racial Equality. Join 
> SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But we must become 
> a totally organized people, and the only way we can do that is to 
> become a part of some organization that is working for the uplift of 
> our people. We must keep the local organizing committees that made 
> this event possible, we must keep them together. Go back and join the 
> local organizing committee. And then all of us as leaders must stay 
> together and make the National African-American Leadership Summit 
> inclusive of all of us.
>
> _*I know that the NAACP did not officially endorse this march; neither 
> did the Urban League.
> *_
>
> _*But so what?
> *_
>
> _*So what? *_
>
> _*Many of the members are here anyway.*_* *_*
> *_
>
> _*I know that Dr. Lyons [sp], of the National Baptist Association, 
> USA, did not endorse the march. Nor did the Reverend Dr. B.W. Smith 
> [sp], nor did Bishop Chandler Owens [sp].*_* *_*
> *_
>
> _*But so what?
> *_
>
> _*These are our brothers, and we're not going to stop reaching out for 
> them simply because we feel there was a misunderstanding. We still 
> want to talk to our brothers because we cannot let artificial barriers 
> divide us.*_* *
>
> Remember the letter of Willie Lynch [sp], and let's not let Willie 
> Lynch [sp] lynch our new spirit and our new attitude and our new mind.
>
> _*No, we must continue to reach out for those that have condemned this 
> and make them to see that this was not evil.
> *_
>
> _*It was not intended for evil.
> *_
>
> _*It was intended for good.*_
>
> Now, brothers, moral and spiritual renewal is a necessity. Every one 
> of you must go back home and join some church, synagogue, temple, or 
> mosque that is teaching spiritual and moral uplift. I want you, 
> brothers. There's no men in the church, in the mosque. The men are in 
> the streets, and we got to get back to the houses of God.
>
> But, preachers, we have to revive religion in America. We have to 
> revive the houses of God that they're not personal fiefdoms of those 
> of us who are their preachers and pastors. But we've got to be more 
> like Jesus, more like Mohammed, more like Moses, and become servants 
> of the people in fulfilling their needs.
>
> Brothers, when you go home, we got to register 8 million eligible, but 
> unregistered, brothers, sisters. So you go home and find eight more 
> like yourself. You register and get them to-
>
> 'Well, how should I register? Should I register as a Democrat? Should 
> I register as a Republican? Should I register as an independent'?
>
> If you're an independent, that's fine; if you're a Democrat, that's 
> fine; if you're a Republican, that's okay, because in local elections 
> you have to do that which is in the best interests of your local 
> community. But what we want is not necessarily a third party, but a 
> third force, which means that we're going to collect Democrats, 
> Republicans, and independents around an agenda that is in the best 
> interests of our people. And then all of us can stand on that agenda, 
> and in 1996 whoever the standard bearer is for the Democratic Party, 
> the Republican Party, or Independent Party, should one come into 
> existence, they got to speak to our agenda.
>
> _*We're no longer going to vote for somebody just because they're black.
> *_
>
> _*We've tried that.
> *_
>
> _*We wish we could.
> *_
>
> _*But we've got to vote for you if you are compatible with our agenda.*_
>
> *Now, many of the people that's in this house right here are put there 
> by the margin of the black vote. So in the next election we want to 
> see who in here do we want to stay, and who in here do we want to go. 
> And we want to show them that never again will they ever disrespect 
> the black community. We must make them afraid to do evil to us and 
> think they can get away with it.* *_We must be prepared to help them 
> if they're with us, or to punish them if they're against us. _
> *
>
> And when they're against us, _*I'm not talking about color,*__* I'm 
> talking about an agenda that's in the best interests of the black, the 
> poor, and the vulnerable in this society.
>
> *_
>
> *_Now, atonement goes beyond us.
> _*
>
> *_I don't like this squabble with the members of the Jewish community. _
> *
>
> _*I don't like it. *_
>
> The Honorable Elijah Mohammed said in one of his writings that he 
> believed that we would work out some kind of an accord. Maybe so. 
> Reverend Jackson has talked to the 12 presidents of Jewish 
> organizations, and perhaps in the light of what we see today maybe 
> it's time to sit down and talk, not with any preconditions. You got 
> pain, but we got pain, too. You hurt; we hurt, too. The question is, 
> if the dialogue is proper, then we might be able to end the pain. And 
> ending the pain may be good for both and ultimately good for the 
> nation. We're not opposed to sitting down. I guess if you could sit 
> down with Arafat, where there are rivers of blood between you, why 
> can't you sit down with us, and there's no blood between us. You don't 
> make sense not to dialogue. It doesn't make sense.
>
> Well, brothers, I hope Father Clements [sp] spoke today. Is Father 
> Clements here? Father Clements?. Do you know Father Clements? He's one 
> of the great pastors. Father Clements- I wanted him to speak today 
> because he has a program that he wants every one of us, when we leave 
> here, to go to some jail or prison and adopt one inmate for the rest 
> of his and your life; to make them your personal friend, to help them 
> through their incarceration, to be encouragement for them. The 
> brothers who are locked down inside the walls need us on the outside, 
> and we need them on the inside. So if every one of us will pick out 
> one inmate, Father Clements will do the work of guiding this 
> development, because it is his idea, and it is a good idea. And the 
> National African-American Leadership Summit adopts that idea. Thank 
> you, Father Clements.
>
> Will you do that, brothers? How many of you will adopt one black man 
> in prison and make him your pal, your brother for life, help him 
> through the incarceration. Well go to the chaplain of that jail and 
> say you want to adopt one inmate, to start writing to that person, 
> visiting that person, helping that person. So many of us have been 
> there already, we know what they suffer. Let's help our brothers and 
> sisters who are locked down.
>
> Did anybody mention the political prisons? Brother Conrad Waller [sp] 
> mentioned our political prisoners - never forget them.
>
> And now, brothers, there are 25,000 black children in need of 
> adoption. This is our brother Eson [sp], who is the president of 
> Blacks in Government - I'm sorry, Brother Johnston [sp], the president 
> of the Black Social Workers. He has 25,000 children in need of 
> adoption. Out of this vast audience there must be 25,000 men who will 
> take one of these children and take them through life and make life 
> worth living for those children. In this vast audience, is there any 
> one, two, 10, 25, 100, 1,000, 25,000 who would be willing to adopt a 
> black brother or sister, bring them into your home and rear them 
> properly? How many of you think you would like to do that? Would you 
> just raise your hand, let me take a look. Raise them high. That's a 
> wonderful expression. Where should they go? What should they do? Who 
> should they see?
>
> *Mr. Johnston:* They should see Booth 26 North.
>
> *Louis Farrakhan:* Booth 26 North is where you should go. It is to my 
> right, your left. Or you should call 1-800-419-1999.
>
> Now, brothers, the last thing we want to say, we want to develop an 
> economic development fund. Suppose the nearly 2 million here and 10 
> million more back home that support us gave $10 a month to a national 
> economic development fund. Inside of one month, we would have over 
> $100 million, and in one year we would have $1,200,000,000. What would 
> we do with that?
>
> I would love for the leadership up here to form a board and call in 
> Myrlie Evers-Williams and ask her, 'What is the budget of the NAACP 
> for this year'? 'It's $13 million. It's $15 million.' 'Write a check.'
>
> Now, next year you have to become accountable to the board, and the 
> members of the NAACP will be on the board, too, which means that no 
> black organization will be accountable to anybody outside of us, but 
> accountable to us, and we would free the NAACP, the Urban League, and 
> all black organizations to work in the best interests of our people. 
> How many of your would like to see all our black organizations free? 
> [crowd responds]
>
> Now look, brothers, an economic development fund for $10 a month is 
> not a big price to ask to begin to build an economic infrastructure to 
> nurture businesses within the black community. Soon the leadership is 
> going to meet and work out the details of an exodus - exodus economic 
> fund. And we're going to get back to you. This is not a one-day thing. 
> A task force will be formed right out of this leadership to make sure 
> that the things that we say today will be implemented, so that next 
> year, on the day of atonement, which - this will take place each and 
> every year from now on until God says, 'Well done.'
>
> Now, you saw the money that was taken up today, didn't you? How many 
> of you gave some money today? I see some hands that wanted to give, 
> but didn't get that box to them. Well, let me tell you something, 
> brothers, we want an outside accounting firm to come in and scrutinize 
> every dollar that was raised from your pockets to make the Million Man 
> March a success. And if there is any overage, it will not be spent. We 
> will come back to this board of leadership, and we will account for 
> every nickel, every dime, every dollar. Do you know why? We want 
> Willie Lynch to die a natural death. And the only way we can kill the 
> idea of Willie Lynch; we have to build trust in each other. And the 
> only way we can build trust is to open up the coat and show that you 
> don't have a hidden agenda. All of us will be looking at the same 
> thing for the same purpose, and then we'll come back to you and make a 
> full accounting for every nickel, every dime and every dollar so that 
> you can trust. I put my life on this. To rob you is a sin. To use you 
> and abuse you is a sin. To make mockery of your love and your trust is 
> a sin, and we repent of all sins. And we refuse to do sin anymore.
>
> Is that agreeable, black man? [crowd responds]
>
> Now, brothers, in closing, I want you to take this pledge.
>
> When I say 'I,' I want you to say 'I,' and I'll say, 'your name.' I 
> know that there's so many names, but I want you to shout your name out 
> so that the ancestors can hear it. Take this pledge with me.
>
> _*Say with me, please,
> *_
>
> _*'I - say your name - pledge that from this day forward I will strive 
> to love my brother as I love myself.
> *_
>
> _*I - say your name - from this day forward will strive to improve 
> myself spiritually, morally, mentally, socially, politically, and 
> economically for the benefit of myself, my family, and my people.
> *_
>
> _*I - say your name - pledge that I will strive to build business, 
> build houses, build hospitals, build factories, and enter into 
> international trade for the good of myself, my family, and my people.
> *_
>
> _*I - say your name - pledge that from this day forward I will never 
> raise my hand with a knife or a gun to beat, cut, or shoot any member 
> of my family or any human being except in self-defense.'*_
>
> _*I - say your name - pledge from this day forward, I will never abuse 
> my wife by striking her, disrespecting her, for she is the mother of 
> my children and the producer of my future.*_
>
> _*I - say your name - pledge that from this day forward, I will never 
> engage in the abuse of children, little boys or little girls, for 
> sexual gratification. But I will let them grow in peace to be strong 
> men and women for the future of our people.*_
>
> _*I - say your name - will never again use the "B" word to describe 
> any female, but particularly my own black sister.*_
>
> _*I - say your name - pledge from this day forward that I will not 
> poison my body with drugs or that which is destructive to my health 
> and my well-being.*_
>
> _*I - say your name - pledge from this day forward I will support 
> black newspapers, black radio, black television. I will support black 
> artists who clean up their acts to show respect for themselves and 
> respect for their people and respect for the ears of the human family.*_
>
> _*I - say your name - will do all of this, so help me, God.*_
>
> Well, I think we all should hold hands now. And I want somebody to 
> sing, "To God Be the Glory." And the reason I want this song sung is 
> because I don't want anybody to take the credit for a day like this. I 
> didn't do it. Reverend Chavis didn't do it. Reverend Jackson didn't do 
> it. Reverend Sharpton didn't do it. Conrad Warrell (sp) and Mowlana 
> Karenga (sp) didn't do it. Dr. Cornel West didn't do it. But all of us 
> worked together to do the best that we could, but it's bigger than all 
> of us. So since we can't take the praise, then we have to give all the 
> glory,
>
> all the honor, all the praise to Him to Whom rightfully belongs.
>
> So, in closing, we want to thank Mayor Barry and Mrs. Barry -
>
> (calls of affirmation, scattered applause)
>
> - for opening this great city to us. And out of every dollar that was 
> collected, 10 percent ofit we're going to leave here in Washington, 
> that Mayor Barry may aid some institution, some good cause in the 
> city. We want to set a good example.
>
> This was a beautiful and a peaceful meeting, probably one of the best 
> that was ever held in Washington, held by black men -
>
> *Audience:* Yes, sir.
>
> *Louis Farrakhan:* - who want to atone to God and clear our slate. 
> Beautiful black brothers, beautiful brothers, I'm going to say a 
> prayer. And I want to thank Phi Beta Sigma -
>
> *Audience:* (Applauding.) That's right.
>
> *Louis Farrakhan:* - and its wonderful, wonderful president, and all 
> the Greek letter organizations, but Phi Beta Sigma especially,because 
> they opened their doors to the Million Man March and made it possible.
>
> Now, let us not be conformed to this world, but let us go on, 
> transformed by the renewing of our minds. And let the idea of 
> atonement ring throughout America; that America may see that the slave 
> has come up with power. The slave is being restored, delivered and 
> redeemed. And now, call this nation to repentance, to acknowledge her 
> wrongs; to confess, not in secret documents called classified, but to 
> come before the world and the American people, as the Japanese prime 
> minister did, and confess her faults before the world, because her 
> sins have affected the whole world. And, perhaps, she may do some act 
> of atonement that you may forgive and those ill-affected may forgive; 
> that reconciliation and restoration may lead us to the perfect union 
> with Thee and with each other. We ask all of this in your holy 
> andrighteous name. (Amen ?).
>
> (Rev. Farrakhan chants in Arabic.)
>
> That means God is great. And now, Gregory Hopkins to sing "To God Be 
> the Glory." Keep holding each other's hands, brothers. And after the 
> song is sung, let us embrace each other.
>
> (Singing of song.)
>
> (Applause.)
>
> *Louis Farrakhan:* _*Everybody turn to your brother, and hug your 
> brother, and tell your brother you love him.
> *_
>
> _*And let's carry this love all the way back to our cities and towns.
> *_
>
> _*Never let it die, brothers.
> *_
>
> _*Never let it die.*_
>
>
> Following is a list of "participants" in the Million Man March event 
> released by the organizers:
>
>
> Rev. Jesse Jackson
> Rev. Al Sharpton
> Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
> Rev. H. Beecher Hicks
> Sheik Ahmend Tijani Ben-Omar
> Rev. Fred Hayes
> Melvin Deal
> Min. Arief Muhammad
> Rev Benjamin Chavis
> Rev. Donad Hunter
> Rev Terry Wingate
> Rev. C. V. Smith
> Rev. Kojo Nantambu
> Rev. Robert Smith
> Rev. John Wright
> Matsemela Mfumo
> Rev. Wayne Gadie
> Dr. Oba T'Shaka
> Imam Malick Sylia
> Ron Hastic
> Carter Womack
> Ron Salior
> Jawanza Kunjufu
> Carl Upchurch
> Shawn Barney
> Rev.Johnny Yoiungblookd
> Dr. Alim Muhammad
> Congressman Kweisi Mfume
> Ron Daniels
> Haki Madhubuti
> Rev. Wendell Anthony
> Rev. James Bevel
> Dr. Cornell West
> Rev. Joseph Lowery
> Rev. Jonathan Greer
> Brother Ishmael Muhammad
> Gregory Hopkins
> Chuck D. (A Rap Star)
> The Honorable Marion Barry
> Betty Shabazz
> Martin Luther King,Jr III
> Tynetta Muhammad
> Rev Wyatt T. Walker
> Atty Faye Williams
> Rosa Parks
> Dr. Dortothy I Height
> Queen Mother Moore
> Bishop H.H. Brookins
> Leonard Dunston
> Father George Clements
> Rev. Jeremiah Wright
> Wintley Phipps
> Rev. Clay Eveans
> Bob Laws
> Rev. Frank Madison Reid,III
> Rev William Revely,Jr
> Dr. Conrad Worrill
> Danny Bakewell
> Rock Newman
> Bishop Jeff Banks
> Oscar Eason
> Henry Nicholas
> Willie Wilson
> Lavan Akbar
> Dr. Thuman Evans
> Earl King
> Mwalima Shuja
> Zachery Mcdaniels
> Bishop George Augusts Stallings
> Bill Crews
> Brother Leonard Muhammad
> Rev. Willie F. Wilson
> Min Ismael Muhammad
> Bishop W.C. Walker
> Tony Powell
> Linday Boyd
> Dr. Dexter Allgood
> Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye
> Min. Akbar Muhammad
> Congressman Donald Payne
> Former Congressman Gus Savage
> The Honorable Curt Schmoke
>
>
> **OBAMA SPEECH IN FULL:
> A MORE PERFECT UNION
>
> March 18th, 2008
> Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
>
>
> ***_"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."_ *
>
> _*Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands 
> across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple 
> words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers 
> and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean 
> to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration 
> of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the 
> spring of 1787.
>
> **The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately 
> unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a 
> question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a 
> stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to 
> continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final 
> resolution to future generations. *_
>
> _*Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded 
> within our Constitution -- a Constitution that had at is very core the 
> ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised 
> its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should 
> be perfected over time. *_
>
> *_And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves 
> from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their 
> full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. __What 
> would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were 
> willing to do their part -- through protests and struggle, on the 
> streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience 
> and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of 
> our ideals and the reality of their time._*
>
> _*This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this 
> campaign -- to continue the long march of those who came before us, a 
> march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more 
> prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment 
> in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the 
> challenges of our time unless we solve them together -- unless we 
> perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, 
> but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not 
> have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same 
> direction -- towards a better future for of children and our 
> grandchildren. *_
>
> _*This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and 
> generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own 
> American story. *_
>
> I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. 
> I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a 
> Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white 
> grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth 
> while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in 
> America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married 
> to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and 
> slaveowners -- an inheritance we pass on to our two precious 
> daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and 
> cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three 
> continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no 
> other country on Earth is my story even possible.
>
> _*It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. 
> But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that 
> this nation is more than the sum of its parts -- that out of many, we 
> are truly one. *_*
> *
> _*Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions 
> to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this 
> message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through 
> a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some 
> of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where 
> the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of 
> African Americans and white Americans. *_
>
> *This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. 
> At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me 
> either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions 
> bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina 
> primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence 
> of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but 
> black and brown as well.
> *
> _*And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the 
> discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive 
> turn. *_
>
> _*On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my 
> candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's 
> based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial 
> reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former 
> pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express 
> views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but 
> views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our 
> nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
> *_
> _*I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of 
> Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging 
> questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic 
> of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear 
> him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in 
> church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? 
> Absolutely -- just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from 
> your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed. *_
>
> *_But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't 
> simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort 
> to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a 
> profoundly distorted view of this country -- a view that sees white 
> racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above 
> all that we know is right with America; _a view that sees the 
> conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of 
> stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse 
> and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
> *
> *_As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but 
> divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a 
> time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental 
> problems -- two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic 
> health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; 
> problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but 
> rather problems that confront us all. _
> *
> *_Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and 
> ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of 
> condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright 
> in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I 
> confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets 
> of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television 
> and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the 
> caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that 
> I would react in much the same way _
> *
> *_But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. _*The man I 
> met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my 
> Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love 
> one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man 
> who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured 
> at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and 
> who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by 
> doing God's work here on Earth -- by housing the homeless, ministering 
> to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison 
> ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
>
> _*In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience 
> of my first service at Trinity: *_
>
> "People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, 
> a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the 
> rafters....And in that single note -- hope! -- I heard something else; 
> at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the 
> city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the 
> stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the 
> lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories -- of 
> survival, and freedom, and hope -- became our story, my story; the 
> blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this 
> black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying 
> the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. 
> Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and 
> more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs 
> gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame 
> about...memories that all people might study and cherish -- and with 
> which we could start to rebuild."
>
> That has been my experience at Trinity. *_Like other predominantly 
> black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black 
> community in its entirety_ *-- the doctor and the welfare mom, the 
> model student and the former gang-banger. _*Like other black churches, 
> Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy 
> humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that 
> may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the 
> kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking 
> ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the 
> bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America. *_
>
> *_And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend 
> Wright. _As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He 
> strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my 
> children. *_*Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him 
> talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with 
> whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.*_* *He 
> contains within him the contradictions -- the good and the bad -- of 
> the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
>
> _*I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.** I 
> can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who 
> helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a 
> woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a 
> woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on 
> the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or 
> ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.*_
>
> _* These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this 
> country that I love. *_
>
> _*Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that 
> are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the 
> politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just 
> hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright 
> as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine 
> Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some 
> deep-seated racial bias. *_
>
> *But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to 
> ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend 
> Wright made in his offending sermons about America -- to simplify and 
> stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts 
> reality. *
>
> *The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that 
> have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race 
> in this country that we've never really worked through -- a part of 
> our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we 
> simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to 
> come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or 
> the need to find good jobs for every American. *
>
> Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at 
> this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, *"The past isn't dead and 
> buried. In fact, it isn't even past."  We do not need to recite here 
> the history of racial injustice in this country.* But we do need to 
> remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the 
> African-American community today can be directly traced to 
> inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under 
> the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
>
> *Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't 
> fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the 
> inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the 
> pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.*
>
> *Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through 
> violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to 
> African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access 
> FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police 
> force, or fire departments -- meant that black families could not 
> amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That 
> history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and 
> white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so 
> many of today's urban and rural communities.*
>
> *A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and 
> frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, 
> contributed to the erosion of black families -- a problem that welfare 
> policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic 
> services in so many urban black neighborhoods -- parks for kids to 
> play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building 
> code enforcement -- all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and 
> neglect that continue to haunt us. *
>
> *_This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other 
> African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the 
> late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the 
> law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's 
> remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but 
> rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to 
> make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them._*
>
> *_But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece 
> of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it -- those who 
> were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. 
> That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations -- those 
> young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street 
> corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for 
> the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, 
> and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. 
> For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of 
> humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger 
> and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in 
> public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does 
> find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, 
> that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial 
> lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings._*
>
> *And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in 
> the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised 
> to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds 
> us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life 
> occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, 
> all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it 
> keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and 
> prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it 
> needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is 
> powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without 
> understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of 
> misunderstanding that exists between the races.*
>
> _*In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white 
> community. **Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel 
> that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their 
> experience is the immigrant experience -- as far as they're concerned, 
> no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've 
> worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped 
> overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are 
> anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in 
> an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to 
> be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. 
> So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; 
> when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in 
> landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice 
> that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their 
> fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, 
> resentment builds over time. *_
>
> _*Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't 
> always expressed in polite company. **But they have helped shape the 
> political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and 
> affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians 
> routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk 
> show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers 
> unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate 
> discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political 
> correctness or reverse racism.*_
>
> *Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these 
> white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the 
> middle class squeeze -- a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, 
> questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington 
> dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that 
> favor the few over the many. _And yet, to wish away the resentments of 
> white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without 
> recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns -- this too 
> widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding. _
> *
> _*This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been 
> stuck in for years.*_ *Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, 
> black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can 
> get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a 
> single candidacy -- particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. *
>
> *But I have asserted a firm conviction -- a conviction rooted in my 
> faith in God and my faith in the American people -- that working 
> together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in 
> fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more 
> perfect union. *
>
> *_For the African-American community, that path means embracing the 
> burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means 
> continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of 
> American life. _But it also means binding our particular grievances -- 
> for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the 
> larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to 
> break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the 
> immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full 
> responsibility for own lives -- by demanding more from our fathers, 
> and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and 
> teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination 
> in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; 
> they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.*
>
> _*Ironically, this quintessentially American -- and yes, conservative 
> -- notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's 
> sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is 
> that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that 
> society can change. *_
>
> _*The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he 
> spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our 
> society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this 
> country *_-- a country that has made it possible for one of his own 
> members to run for the highest office in the land and build a 
> coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young 
> and old -- _*is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we 
> know -- what we have seen -- is that America can change. That is true 
> genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope -- 
> the audacity to hope -- for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.*_
>
> _*In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means 
> acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not 
> just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of 
> discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less 
> overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with 
> words, but with deeds *_-- by investing in our schools and our 
> communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness 
> in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with 
> ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. 
> It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to 
> come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, 
> welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will 
> ultimately help all of America prosper.
>
> *In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing 
> less, than what all the world's great religions demand -- that we do 
> unto others as we would have them do unto us. _Let us be our brother's 
> keeper, _Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. _Let us 
> find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our 
> politics reflect that spirit as well. _
> *
> _*For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that 
> breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only 
> as spectacle -- as we did in the OJ trial -- or in the wake of 
> tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the 
> nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, 
> every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make 
> the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people 
> think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive 
> words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence 
> that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white 
> men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless 
> of his policies. *_
>
> _*We can do that.*_
>
> _* But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be 
> talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then 
> another one. And nothing will change. *_
>
> _*That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can 
> come together and say, "Not this time." *_This time we want to talk 
> about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black 
> children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children 
> and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism 
> that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't 
> look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are 
> not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall 
> behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
>
> This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room 
> are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health 
> care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special 
> interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
>
> This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided 
> a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale 
> that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, 
> every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the 
> real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take 
> your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas 
> for nothing more than a profit.
>
> This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and 
> creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under 
> the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from 
> a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been 
> waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by 
> caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they 
> have earned.
>
> _*I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my 
> heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this 
> country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after 
> generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, 
> whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this 
> possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation -- the 
> young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have 
> already made history in this election. *_
>
> There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with 
> today -- a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. 
> King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
>
> There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia 
> who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had 
> been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the 
> beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable 
> discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they 
> were there.
>
> And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got 
> cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and 
> lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when 
> Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
>
> She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so 
> Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really 
> wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish 
> sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
>
> She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told 
> everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was 
> so that she could help the millions of other children in the country 
> who want and need to help their parents too.
>
> Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told 
> her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks 
> who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming 
> into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in 
> her fight against injustice.
>
> Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and 
> asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have 
> different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And 
> finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there 
> quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he 
> does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the 
> economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he 
> was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the 
> room, "I am here because of Ashley."
>
> "I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of 
> recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is 
> not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs 
> to the jobless, or education to our children.
>
> But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as 
> so many generations have come to realize over the course of the 
> two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that 
> document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
>
>
>
>
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