On Oct. 16, 1995, one million Black men marched on Washington, D.C. in a powerful political show of force against the enduring legacy of Black enslavement and Jim Crow apartheid which had never been fully uprooted.
The march was a response to a two-pronged, bipartisan assault on the working class that hinged on the demonization of Black communities. Democratic President Bill Clinton was leading an attack on vital social programs, like Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In the 1994 elections, the evangelical right wing of the Republican Party scored a decisive victory, holding majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The path to that ‘94 midterm victory was paved by a Republican legislative agenda titled “the Contract with America.” The document was signed by 367 Republican House of Representatives candidates as well as many candidates for Senate, state and local positions — effectively creating a national electoral campaign. Within the first 100 days of the plan’s implementation, 10 bills were introduced that ultimately led to significant policy changes and oppressive shifts such as: slashing welfare benefits, strengthening NATO and U.S. hegemony within the United Nations and dramatically increasing the number of federal crimes eligible for the death penalty. The Contract with America was authored by the Heritage Foundation, the same conservative think tank that spearheaded Project 2025. In many ways, its provisions set the stage for the rightward drift within the U.S. ruling class that’s led to two presidential terms for Donald Trump and the current billionaire agenda.
The Million Man March responded with a mobilization centering messages of Black empowerment and unity, rejecting the racist media stereotypes that cast Black men especially as violent, antisocial and irresponsible.
Carrying the pledge back to Detroit
On the return bus from D.C. to Detroit, an organization was born to carry on the struggle for Black liberation in Detroit: the Million Man March Alumni Association, initially launched out of the Inner City Sub Center under the leadership of the Center’s director Paul Taylor. Within one year, the MMMAA had implemented a tutoring and youth development program, voter registration activities, an East Detroit basketball tournament and formed a community patrol squad. Ever since, this organization of elders down to 20-somethings has continued to serve the community and preserve Black culture, including organizing annual commemorations for African Liberation Day and the city’s Kwanzaa celebration.
The MMMAA is currently housed at Alkebu-lan Village, a community center that provides child literacy programs, martial arts classes, cultural preservation, a home for political education and more, all rooted in Pan-Africanism and New Afrikan culture. The Trump administration’s Big Billionaire Bill cut 25% of funding for the village earlier this year. Nationwide, more than $2 billion in DEI‑related funding cuts have been confirmed, including $50 million across Michigan.
Alkebu-lan has touched the lives of more than 300,000 Detroiters and the MMMAA has been preserving Black culture for 30 years straight. These community institutions are community members’ pillars that must withstand this storm.
Oppression persists so the struggle continues
On the week of the 30th anniversary, Detroit’s Million Man alumni got on the bus and mobilized a multigenerational group back to Washington, D.C. to commemorate the historic moment of class struggle. We spent anniversary day there, studying history at the Thurgood Marshall Library, securing revolutionary texts at Sankofa bookstore, giving thanks and imagining a better future on the National Mall, and then strategizing and breaking bread at cultural hub Busboys and Poets. The trip was not only about fellowship and a reflective look back but also an energizing reminder that we must carry on the pledge to struggle for the liberation of our people.
The same racist phenomena that drove the urgency of the 1995 march is currently driving a resurgence of extreme right-wing attacks on the Black nation and the entire working class, including: attempts to roll back the gains of the Civil Rights Revolution; victim-blaming of Black communities for the poverty created by the racist U.S. capitalist system; environmental racism that creates huge health disparities between Black and white communities; and the persistent demonization and persecution of Black people by racist police forces and the mass incarceration system. The billionaire agenda is not only attacking our education, healthcare, housing and democratic rights, they’re attempting to strip away key institutions that have kept our communities alive for decades.
As the Trump administration seeks to roll back the clock to the days of triumphal and open white supremacy, we must remember the Million Man March’s message of unity in the face of oppression and division of the working class through hatred and bigotry. We must protect our democratic rights, social services and community institutions. We must take up the call to build an independent political force capable of winning a future of power, dignity and self-determination for Black people and all people oppressed by the capitalist system.
Click here to support Alkebu-lan Village’s campaign to keep this work going. And let’s agitate, educate and organize our way to a general strike to defeat Trump and the billionaire agenda!
LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF THE MILLION MAN MARCH!
Feature photo: Members of Detroit’s Million Man March Alumni Association on a trip to Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Million Man March. Liberation photo
