Nation of Islam Cancels March
The Nation of Islam has canceled a march scheduled this week through a neighborhood divided by racial tensions, and Minister Louis Farrakhan has accepted Mayor Ed Rendell’s invitation to address a rally instead.
Minister Rodney Muhammad of Mosque No. 12 said last week that Farrakhan decided to cancel the 5,000- man march planned for Monday after staff assessed the situation in Grays Ferry.
Rendell, who is white, and Council President John Street, who is black, have been trying to bridge the gap between the communities. Eager to avoid bad publicity with the upcoming President’s Summit on Voluntarism,t he mayor wrote Farrakahn.
The site of the rally was not announced either by the Nation of Islam or the city.
Tensions boiled over in the working-class neighborhood when white men surrounded and beat a black woman, her son and nephew outside their row house last month. They are still under police guard.
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