Follow-Up to ‘Million Man March’ Calls for New Party

Vowing to build a powerful black political force, organizers of last fall’s “Million Man March” drafted an urban policy agenda Saturday calling for a new party and an end to church burnings.

“We are going to build a God-centered mass movement for empowerment,” the Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. told a news conference after a two-day national-issues hearing that drew participants from around the country.

Chavis billed the meeting as a follow-up to the Oct. 16 “Million Man March” that filled the Mall in Washington with followers and featured speeches by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and other luminaries.

Farrakhan had addressed the Chicago meeting Friday night and called for more black political activism. The sessions were sponsored by Million Man March Inc. and the National African American Leadership Summit.

*

Chavis said those attending had resolved to hold a national political convention in St. Louis, Sept. 20-22, to be followed by a “world day of atonement” at the United Nations in New York on the Oct. 16 anniversary.

Chavis said the urban agenda drafted by the meeting will be “disseminated to millions of persons across the country” as part of a political organizing effort aimed at expanding the black vote in November’s elections.

He said the organizations would seek to create “a third force” to register numerous black voters across the country and pressure the Republican and Democratic parties as well as the Reform Party of Ross Perot. “Then comes November--D-day,” Chavis said. “We are going to determine the direction of millions of our voters; it’s good news.”

Among agenda goals outlined by Chavis were transforming the political system, bringing morality to public issues, “confronting white supremacy,” preserving public housing, freeing political prisoners and ending expansion of the nation’s prison system.

Other goals include efforts to combat drugs, stop church burnings, reestablish affirmative action programs, carve a bigger role for African Americans in the nation’s economy, obtain quality education and better medical care, protect communities from “environmental racism,” and challenge racism in the news media and the telecommunications industry.