`Roster of bigots’ gathered before NOI march, reports ADL. A “roster of bigots” spewed racism and anti-Semitism at a two-day conference in Washington prior to the Million Man March, according to a report from the Anti- Defamation League released last week.
The report, “The Other Face of Farrakhan: A Hate-Filled Prelude to the Million Man March,” documents the Black Holocaust Nationhood Conference, which took place the same weekend as Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan’s Oct. 16 march.
The conference’s speakers included some of the most virulent and outspoken anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists in the black community, including several NOI officials.
“For two days, the conference halls rang with raw bigotry,” said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director. “The rhetoric of violence and hate boomed from reinstate Nation of Islam minister Khalid Muhammad, NOI’s National Youth Minister Quanell X and other wellknown extremists.”
The 2,000 black men and women in attendance, who regarded themselves as the militant contingent of the Million Man March, met in two Washington, D.C., high schools, the report said.
In introducing keynote speaker Muhammad, conference organizers Malik Zulu Shabazz said, “We want to bring on a man who makes the Jews pee in their pants at night,” the report said. Shabazz, a former Howard University student, gained notoriety in the pro-Farrakhan community for leading anti-Semitic chants at Howard University student rallies last year.
According to the ADL report, Muhammed said at the gathering: “We have lost over 600 million at the hands of the white man in the last 6,000 years. That is 100 times worse than the so-called Holocaust of the so-called Jew, the imposter Jew.”
Other speakers – who, according to the report, often were pro-Farrakhan black figures known for their anti-white, anti-Asian, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic and homophobic views – included Professor Leonard Jeffries of the City College of New York and Professor Tony Martin of Wellesley College.
According to the ADL, Quanell X, whose original name is Quanell Evans, reportedly said to the conference, “Are 6 million lives worth more than 150 million black lives? All those Jews can go straight to hell.”
Foxman said, “Clearly, the extremism of the Black Holocaust Nationhood Conference contrasted sharply with the broad-based Million Man March, where the overwhelming majority of men on the Mall came together to embrace the themes of atonement, responsibility and solidarity.”
Hundreds of thousands of black men took part in the march, which was also sponsored by Benjamin Chavis, the ousted executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
