Million Man March 20th anniversary (photo gallery)

Oct. 10 marked the 20th anniversary of Minister Louis Farrakhan’s historic Million Man March on Washington that, much like the theme in 1995, fixated on issues of institutionalized racial inequality.

The event drew people from across the nation under the theme of “Justice or Else” — spanning from Black Lives Matter student activists at VCU to Central State University in Ohio, to a group of young men representing the Brooklyn Job Corps Academy.

We who are getting older,” Farrakhan, 82, said to the crowd. “What good are we if we don’t prepare young people to carry that torch of liberation to the next step? What good are we if we think we can last forever and not prepare others to walk in our footsteps?”

Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam, was the leader of both Saturday’s rally as well as in 1995. Farrakhan called on the African-American community to take more responsibility for black-on-black crime and killings, as well as harsher scrutiny of the string of deaths by police violence brought into the limelight throughout the last year.

There must come a time when we say enough is enough,” Farrakhan said.

The minister addressed the crowd for nearly two hours as children, families and political activists alike waved red, black and green Pan-African flags or held up fists in solidarity.

Other speakers included relatives who lost family to instances of police violence throughout the last year including Michael Brown’s father and Sandra Bland’s mother. Christian clergy, Islamic ministers, Native American activists and Latinos also spoke on the marginalization and demonization of unauthorized immigrants.

See more of the historic event on the National Mall below:

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Photos by Julie Tripp

Executive Editor, Sarah King

Sarah is a junior in the honors college studying political science and philosophy of law. Last spring, Sarah worked as an editorial intern for “CQ Researcher” and “SAGE Business Researcher” in Washington, D.C. Her independent work has been published on platforms including the Huffington Post, RVA Magazine and alongside her peers at Harvard, Brown and Columbia on knowyourix.org. Sarah’s primary nutrient is Redbull. // Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

kingsa@commonwealthtimes.org

Staff Photographer, Julie Tripp

Julie is a junior majoring in photography with a minor in media studies. She is pursuing a career in photojournalism and is taking the spring semester to study photography in Bristol, England. // Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Portfolio

trippjm@commonwealthtimes.org