by Abdul Allah Muhammad
As the time for the Million Man March rapidly approaches, Black communities across America have come to fit the description of the Old West--"Where the men are men and the women are glad of it." Black Women have cried and prayed for this day since we were on the slave plantations, and now, this generation is blessed to see all those prayers answered. At least 99 percent of our women enthusiastically support the March. The remaining one per cent need our prayers.So far, I have only encountered a couple of the poor, deluded sisters--one on a call-in radio show in Boston and one in person at the Black Expo in Washington, D.C.--and even those struggles were short and successful. The confrontation in Deecee, which lasted all of two minutes, was the more memorable of the two. When I informed the young Sister that, instead of thinking, she was merely parroting the white, feminist party line, her response was to accuse me of attacking something of which I had no knowledge. She assumed her best "gotcha!" position as she accused me of following the Black Man's pattern of attacking the feminist movement without any knowledge of the movement itself. She became a willing listener, as well as a vocal supporter of the March after the two of us compared credentials. She was genuinely shocked to learn that I spent one full year as a bona fide card-carrying member of the grandma of feminist groups, the National Organization for Women (NOW). I was the only man in full attendance at the National Convention that year, and helped to elect the organization's first Black President--my friend, Eileen Hernandez.
Lest any Black woman reading this column has any misgivings about Minister Farrakhan's call for a million Black Men, let me point out that this March is the greatest tribute paid to our Sisters in the nearly four centuries that we have spent on this side of the ocean. This generation of Black Women in America has lived to witness, and help bring about, what all her female ancestors dreamed of and worked and prayed for. Generation after generation, our women have given us their very best in an attempt to make us the very best. It took a long time and a lot of doing, so, in the meantime, our women have had to be both man and woman of the house and the community. How many Black Men rode on the backs of busses for how long, without a mumble or a grumble, until Rosa Parks challenged the practice?
You, Black Woman of today, have done what all your predecessors longed to do. You have produced the turn-around generation, and the turnaround of Blacks in America is the foundation for the total turnaround of civilization. You are not just a part of this March; this is your March! This historic event is being carried out by the fruit of your womb. If "As a tree is known by the fruit that it bears, so a man is known by his works," what does this say about our Mothers, Sisters, Aunts and Cousins who have produced and shaped, against all odds, the greatest men in recorded history? And you did it against all odds! Every generation that we have spent on these shores has seen the Black male become scarcer and scarcer in the family structure. My Mother raised me without the help of a man; so did Minister Farrakhan's Mother. Take a poll, and you will find that this is the rule, rather than the exception.
So, as you see us off, Beautiful Black Queen, look and be proud of what you have produced-- just you and God!
(This article orginally appeared in the column ELEVEN FIFTY-FIVE, The Final Call newspaper, Vol.14, No.22.)