20th anniversary of Million Man March draws thousands to Washington, D.C., Minister Louis Farrakhan gives keynote address....Farrakhan denounces abortion and human trafficking, demands Civil and human rights, and says that the Black Lives Matter activists are the Civil Rights leaders of the future....12-year-old Cleveland police fatal shooting victim Tamir Rice is mentioned in this article....Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, who is White, pro-cop, and a former county judge, is accused by community activists of racism and of allegedly manipulating expert witness reports designed to deter a county grand jury from indicting Cleveland police in the Rice shooting....By Cleveland Urban News.Com Editor-in-Chief Kathy Wray Coleman www.clevelandurbannews.com

The 20th anniversary celebration of the 1995 historic Million Man March drew thousands to the nation's capital in Washington D.C. on Saturday, Oct 10, 2015. The original march occurred on October 16, 1995.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 22-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio.  (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). 

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Thousands gathered on Saturday on Mall A in Washington D.C. at the nation's capital to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March, an event centered around police killings and civil and human rights, and spearheaded by Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, the architect of  the original march that reportedly drew some 800,000 people in 1995. (Editor's note: The original march was held on October 16, 1995).

“We are fighting for Michael Brown Jr. and demanding justice for all families who have lost loved ones to police killings," Farrakhan said earlier this week on Facebook as a prelude to today's historical meeting of Black and other activists, religious and Civil Rights leaders, attorneys and academicians from across the country.  

Tamir Rice

The historical anniversary celebration comes on the heels of national unrest relative to arbitrary police killings nationwide of unarmed Black people, including 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Eric Garner in New York City, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, and Tanisha Anderson and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, both killed by anxious and poorly trained Cleveland police officers. (Editor's note: Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, who is White, pro-cop,  and a former county judge,  is accused by community activists of racism and of allegedly manipulating expert witness reports designed to deter a county grand jury from indicting Cleveland police in the Rice shooting. A grand jury will determine if any felony charges come as a result of the tragic shooting per state law in Ohio).

In addition to Farrakhan, who gave the keynote address at today's 'Justice or Else' rally, other high profile speakers include Akousa Ali, president of the Washington D.C. branch NAACP,  Chicago State University President Dr. Wayne D. Watson, National Newspaper Publishers Association President and CEO the Rev Dr. Benjamin Chavis, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, who is senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and Florida Civil Rights attorney Benjamin Crump, the newly elected president of the National Bar Association. (Editor's note: Crump represents the family of slain Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown and did represent the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice,  until he was fired this summer by Samaria Rice, the younger Rice's mother).

Farrakhan, 82, told the tentative crowd that without equality, freedom and justice are inevitable. And he said that Blacks lives do, in fact, matter.

Last December the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued its report of systemic problems in the city of Cleveland's largely White Cleveland Police Department, which culminated in a court monitored consent decree settlement for police reforms reached with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and city officials in June. 

Those scathing findings include a pattern of illegal excessive force police killings, vicious pistil whippings of innocent women and children, and cruel and unusual punishment against the mentally ill. 

The Nation of Islam leader called the Black Lives Matter activists the Civil Rights leaders of the future, and said that the old guard must make way for the new guard of leaders.

"What good are we if we do not prepare young people to carry the torch of liberation to the next step," said Farrakhan, who also touched on his opposition to abortion, and said that he urges every pregnant woman to "bring her child to a full term."

But the religious leader, who practices the Muslim faith, also took on rape and human trafficking,  and said that people that "traffic in girls are worthy of death itself."

He said that Civil Rights icon the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was, in his view, not a dreamer.

"He [Dr. King] was not a dreamer, he was a revolutionary thinker," said Farrakhan.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).