NORFOLK, Va. — October 16, 1995: it was more than three decades after the March on Washington.
There to get Black issues back on the minds of lawmakers and the nation, hundreds of thousands of African American men converged on the National Mall.
Organizers of the Million Man March saw it as the perfect publicity campaign to combat negative racial stereotypes. The goal was also to display unity and self-sufficiency, things that weren’t portrayed often for Black men in popular culture.
A group of activists left from Hampton Roads on the morning of the march, and 13News Now followed their journey to the nation’s capital.
The march was held on the National Mall, and the National African American Leadership Summit, including many local chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People formed its organizing committee. The founder of the National African American Leadership Summit, Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. served as National Director of the Million Man March.
At the time of the march, African Americans faced unemployment rates nearly twice that of white Americans, a poverty rate of more than 40%, and a median family income that was about 58% of the median for white households. More than 11% of all Black men were unemployed and for those aged 16 to 19, the number of unemployed had climbed to over 50%.
More than 25 years later, our country still grapples with some of the same exact problems the march wanted to bring attention to.
Two years after the march, the Million Woman March was held. It was a response to concerns the first march excluded Black women from the nationwide discussion on race.