Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 18, 1995 TAG: 9510180074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON AND JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
At 15, Eugene Preston was the youngest rider on a busload of Roanoke Valley men who became part of history Monday by participating in the Million Man March. He wishes more boys his age could have gone.
Before he went, "I was down on myself," he said Tuesday. "I came back with a sense of pride."
Listening to Louis Farrakhan changed his mood. Nation of Islam leader Farrakhan had urged black men from across the country to join in a "day of atonement" and unity in the capital Monday. Officials estimated 400,000 people joined him, while march organizers claimed 2 million participants. Regardless of the turnout, those who attended said it was an overwhelming experience.
When he returned to William Fleming High School on Tuesday, Preston said, he shared his experience with peers.
"They missed out on a good thing," he said. "We needed some guidance. ... We don't have anyone to look up to."
Rahman Muhammad, a stylist at Hair Is on Melrose Avenue Northwest, said he also spent much of Tuesday sharing the experience with friends.
"For me, it's going to be rubbing off for a long time," said Muhammad, 21.
Calvin Brown, 40, remembers as a child watching Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" gathering on TV. Monday, as another landmark march on Washington unfolded, Brown made sure he was there.
It was a spiritual event for him.
"There was a sense of unity, a sense of love, a sense of people caring for people, people wanting to change the direction of the past," Brown said. "I was surprised to find a lot of people in the same boat, with the same cause, facing the same oppression."
The march, he said, isn't just a good thing for black men. "It's a good cause for America."
He believes society will see a change as a result of the march, although "it might take time to start settling into people's hearts," he said.
At least 150 Roanoke Valley residents took part in the march. Many of them took an extra day off work to rest after more than 12 hours standing on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
But all of them were eager to share the experiences with friends, family and the media.
Gregory Austin, a 28-year-old supervisor at Yokohama Tire Corp., echoed others when he said the main point of the march was not what politicians or white society or the government can do for them, "but what black men can do for themselves."
"To me, the march was about giving black men a chance to get together and talk about the ills and problems we're facing with the murder rate, prisons, drugs and crime, maintaining our families," Austin said.
Malvester X, an organizer of two buses from Roanoke and Martinsville, closed his music store, Poor Boy Music, to attend the march. He worked there, collecting charity - the offering - which he said Farrakhan wants to use to buy a million acres and open black-run hospitals, businesses and schools.
He watched the rally from the back of the stage, in front of which stood an "ocean of people."
"It was love. It was peace. If our community could be as peaceful as that march, we could say we were close to being in heaven."
Once black men "get themselves right," they can then go back to their communities and make them right, he said.
Khalid Jones, another Hair Is stylist who helped organize a group from Roanoke, said the feeling among the crowd couldn't be understood just by watching on TV.
"You had to be there," he said. "You could see it on TV, but you didn't feel the vibe."
Jones described the crowd as a group eager to "gather information" that would help them better their lives. That knowledge now should be taken back to their communities and families, he said.
"The people was the media," Jones said.
Frederick Lee Pledge, a Roanoke police officer who drove to Washington with another police officer, said he is ready to implement what he learned on the streets of Roanoke.
"I'm trying to do my part to help the young black males [of Northwest Roanoke] stay off the streets," he said.
Pledge said he works in the neighborhood of some of those attending the march. He said the experience has helped both parties understand each other better.
Everyone interviewed Tuesday agreed that the atmosphere at the march was unlike anything they had ever seen.
"It was like a family - like you knew everybody," Jones said.
Once during the day, the crowd was asked to take some time to meet people around them, Jones said.
"I met like 30 different people from all over," he said. It was like "getting reacquainted with your natural brother."
Jones said his group arrived around 4:30 a.m. He estimated 100,000 people were there "just waiting for the sun to come up" while singing and looking forward to hearing the lineup of speakers and musicians.
Although numerous religious preferences were represented at the march, Jones said the theme was strong enough to unify all of them.
"I've been a Muslim all my life," he said. "I have never in my life seen all those different types of people get together. It was just powerful."
by CNB