
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 18, 1995                   TAG: 9510180076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ORGANIZERS TO SUE OVER `UNDERCOUNT'

Organizers of the Million Man March accused the U.S. Park Police on Tuesday of making a ``willful undercount'' of those attending Monday's march and said they would sue the government to challenge the count.

Million Man March leaders asserted that more than 1 million attended the rally on the National Mall in Washington. But the Park Police, who used aerial photos and a grid system to count, estimated the total at 400,000.

``We believe it was a willful undercount,'' said Minister Arif Muhammad, co-chairman of the march legal committee, at a Tuesday news conference.

Nation of Islam leader and march organizer Louis Farrakhan went further, accusing the Park Police and the National Park Service of bigotry.

``To look at the paper this morning and to see the figure that was given is to mark the hundreds of thousands of people absent from their day of making history,'' Farrakhan said. ``We cannot and we will not allow the sacrifice that they made to be written out of history simply because of white supremacy.''

Later he said, ``We're going to start cleaning house with a righteous broom. And we're going to start with those that falsely say to the world that 400,000 black men came when they know that it was well over a million people. Racism, white supremacy and hatred for Louis Farrakhan disallows them to give us credit.''

The Rev. Benjamin Chavis Jr., another march organizer, said the Park Service owes the march organizers and participants an explanation.

The Park Police, who have been repeatedly accused of undercounts of other Mall demonstrations in the past, denied Farrakhan's charges.

``We have no motives. Our purpose is for planning purposes and our internal use,'' Park Police Capt. Tom Wilkins said Tuesday.

Wilkins said the count was taken at about 3 p.m., when the crowd appeared to be largest.

by CNB