Cabin Fervor : Flight Home From Washington March Is Buoyed by Enthusiasm, Commitment

Waves of euphoria and determination swept through the plane, seeming to help propel it back to Los Angeles.

Passengers, who so often are little more than anonymous bodies to one another, engaged in animated conversation, talking about ways to capitalize on the enthusiasm generated by their participation in Monday’s “Million Man March” in Washington.

The marchers, who dedicated themselves to redeeming black communities, exchanged telephone numbers and business cards, pledging to remain in touch and work together to build organizations that will help recapture the civility and order that once characterized their communities.

Some spoke of getting more involved with their friends, their churches, their neighbors. Implicit in their comments was a recognition that black neighborhoods have been seriously damaged by the idea of finding a “ticket out,” and that the time has come to buy tickets back in.

“For the first time, people are looking at themselves--not at the government--to see how they can make things better,” said J. B. Larkins, president of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard Employees Assn. He said he is going to approach the leadership of Grant AME Church, where he is a member, about forming a chapter of an organization dedicated to “taking back the streets” from criminal elements.

“I feel great, excited, energized,” he said. “The march gave me a boost.”

The marchers--among several thousand who went to Washington from Los Angeles by plane or bus--made up the vast majority aboard this homebound flight of about 300. Before departure at Dulles International Airport, they laughingly asked each other: “Which march did you attend? The one with 400,000 or the one with 1.5 million,” referring to the disparity between official crowd estimates and the organizers’ count.

They spoke of plans. Los Angeles mortgage banker Donald Tyler, 42, said he is going to become a Big Brother. Real estate broker Carol Winston said she will become more active in her Baldwin Hills homeowners group and help it find constructive alternatives for youngsters who hang out at a nearby park.

The Rev. Matthew D. Harris said he will preach about the march during Sunday services at Los Angeles’ Abraham Missionary Baptist Church. He also plans to involve the church’s ministerial staff in planning sessions to develop projects to implement some of the march’s goals.

On the flight home, Harris wondered aloud how to “turn around some of the young black men, enlighten them, make them feel they are not the scum of the earth. We want to encourage them to be the best they can be by staying within the church.”

He knows that some Christian clergy have expressed serious doubts about embracing the march’s organizer, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and that some are made nervous by Farrakhan’s belief in Islam.

“It’s not about Farrakhan,” Harris said. “He may have brought the message, but this was something that was felt by everybody deep down.”

Donald Clytus, 25, a salesman for Philip Morris, was touched by recognizing the depth of his own fears. He moved to Los Angeles from Oklahoma after graduating from Arizona State University, and said his income has separated him economically from poorer African Americans. He has cousins in Compton but has never visited them.

“I was afraid to go to their neighborhood,” he said. “I have to deal with my fear of going over there. We often find ourselves afraid of each other.”

The march, Clytus said, has helped him begin to confront his fears--and to confront his friends who are not registered to vote. During his two-hour speech Monday, Farrakhan urged every man attending the march to register eight voters in his community.

“The majority of my friends are not registered,” Clytus said, chatting with a group of passengers brainstorming about ways they can organize meetings to “continue the dialogue” generated by the march.

The march also opened Thomas Roper, 26, to constructive possibilities. A salesman at a Nordstrom store, Roper said he is going to “personally atone” in an effort “to be at one with myself.”

The march, he said, inspired him to want to become active in teaching black men to be “more responsible.” He is convinced that the atmosphere pervading the march will help equip him to do so.

“Love was generated all through the weekend,” he said, “and we need to bring that love back to Los Angeles.”