[Editor’s note: The following are excerpts from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s address on the occasion of the 12th Anniversary of the Million Man March, delivered from the Atlanta Civic Center on October 16, 2007. To order DVD/CD, or MP3, please visit store.finalcall.com or call 1-866-602-1230, ext. 200.]
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
On this day, the 12th Anniversary of the Million Man March, on the 16th day of October, we call it a Day of Atonement. For us atonement means being at one; at one with God and at one with each other, working to reconcile all our differences and accepting the responsibility to pull ourselves and our people up out of the condition in which we find ourselves.
We have chosen the city of Atlanta to bring this message of Atonement, Reconciliation and Responsibility. We thank Mayor Shirley Franklin, the City Administration, Chief of Staff, Mr. Gregory Pridgeon for what they have done to aid us in our walk against prostate cancer. We thank Mayor Shirley Franklin for honoring us and presenting us with the Phoenix award. We thank Councilman Ivory Young, Jr., and the City Council for their proclamation on behalf of the city. We thank them for the permit they gave us. We thank the police chief and the members of his staff and the authorities, for allowing us to have a peaceful Walk for Life/Walk for Prostate Cancer, to give many Black men who might have probably died from this dreaded disease, a chance to get the necessary testing that would allow us to catch this disease in its earliest stage. We are honored to be in the great city of Atlanta, in the great state of Georgia, the birthplace of the man that I represent, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
I am so honored by all of these magnificent and wonderful persons that are seated on this stage to my left and my right; members of the clergy, members of the political elite of the city, my beloved Brothers and Sisters in hip hop. All of you honor me by your presence. I’m just overjoyed that my big Brother, who is really the patriarch now of the Civil Rights struggle, the Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery is here. We are honored to have you. He looks so young and so vibrant and he sounds so strong. My Brother from SCLC who is now carrying the torch of Dr. King, Dr. Abernathy, and Martin Luther King III and Rev. Joe Lowry and all those who came before, Brother Charles Steele. He was so fired up, I have to be careful; I won’t hit that podium anymore. I want to thank the president of Morehouse, the president of Clark Atlanta University, the president of Spelman. Atlanta is indeed blessed with this great college campus and all of these wonderful institutions. My plea to the presidents of these institutions is that you understand the time, and what is required of the time, and not make these schools plantations that bring children out to be servants of those that their fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers served. Bring them out with an education that will allow them to prepare a future for themselves and their people, not coming out looking to a benevolent corporate America for a job.
Be Ye Separated
I want to talk to you today about what Allah, God means in the language of separation and why separation is a necessity for the people of God today. I want to explore in the scriptures what Jesus meant when he said, “Be ye separated.” I would like to think over with you the parables that Jesus made in the New Testament of the Kingdom of God, where this Kingdom was produced by separation. Two would be grinding at the mill and He would take one and leave one. Two would be lying in the bed—that’s real close—but He would take one and leave one. And then he made parables of the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven talking about the separation between the wheat and the tare, the sheep and the goat, because these two things, the sheep and the goat had two different natures; the wheat and the tare had two different natures.
God is interested in saving the righteous. So that puts everybody in the valley of decision as to which one are we? Am I the one who will be left in the bed? Am I the one who will be left at the well? Am I a tare that wants to strangle out the wheat? Am I a goat that wants to mislead the sheep?
Come Out of Her, My People
I want to talk to you today, about that voice in the 18th chapter of Revelations, a voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her my people, that you be not partakers of her sins and her plagues, for her sins have reached unto heaven.” This means that the deviation, the abomination and filth of this world permeates America and it has even reached the holy people. Jerusalem is no longer a holy city except in name, for the filth and abomination of this Mystery Babylon has reached Jerusalem. It has reached Mecca, it has reached Medina, and Rome, as the seat of Christendom where the Pope as the vicegerent of Christ resides, the filth and abomination of Satan’s world has reached Rome and The Vatican.
In other words, the sin of this world has reached the height and the degree where God, Himself is angry and is now sending plagues that reflect His absolute displeasure with the degree of sin and the abominations that have engulfed God’s people and the world that is ruled by Satan. Even the Holy Qur’an, which is the Book of scripture of Muslims, says in these words, “Set your face for religion, being upright before there come from Allah that which cannot be averted. And on that day they shall be separated.”
It is apparent that we cannot avert or avoid what the prophets predicted about the destruction and end of a world that has earned His (God’s) wrath. Jesus said he was in the world, as we are in the world, but Jesus, though he was in the world, he was not of the world. The problem with us is we are in it (the world) and we are of it, so a voice has to come up saying, “come out of her.” We’re in the most dangerous and troubling time since human beings have been on the planet, so “come out of her” has great meaning now to avoid complete extinction and complete destruction.
Man’s Disrespect of God’s Creation
We give former Vice President Al Gore a lot of credit for his warning of the consequences of environmental destruction. The melting of the glaciers and the melting of ice in the Arctic will continue to have a destructive effect on different mammals, different creatures, insects, green life, life that has a treasure in it. Allah (God) says in the Holy Qur’an that in everything that He created, He holds the treasure of it. But how to extract from the human what God has put within can only happen if those of us who are given stewardship over human life, know how to extract that treasure and put it into the service of self, community and the world. All of the institutions of man have failed to extract the treasure that’s in the human and the treasure that is in everything that God creates. From the mother and the father who produces children, but does not know how to train them up in the way that they should go, to the teachers in school; to the Pastors, the Preachers, the Imams, the Mullahs, the Sheiks, those in high places in religion, those kings and rulers and presidents, all have failed to extract the treasure of the earth and the treasure in the human soul. It is because all have become victims of Satan’s blinding touch.
Man’s meddling, his disrespect for the value of the environment, the value of water, the value of the oceans, the value of the lakes and rivers, the value of the rainforests, man’s greed and excesses and man’s disrespect for God and man’s disrespect for the value of everything that God created to maintain and sustain life is now leading to our total destruction.
Black Male Endangered
The Black male is in a very particular place of endangerment not only by environmental factors, but the Black man’s attitude, our ignorance, our savagery, are all lending to a plan, a conspiracy. The scientists say that when a species is endangered, the next stage is extinction. If the condition of the Black Male in particular is not checked and if God does not intervene, we will soon be extinct.
Now, both the Bible and Holy Qur’an speak of the problem, which Pharaoh and his chiefs faced with the booming population of the Children of Israel and the fear that God would restore those people and give them land. According to the Holy Qur’an, I’m quoting now, the chiefs of Pharaoh’s people said, “Would you leave Moses and his people to make mischief in the land and forsake you and our gods?” Pharaoh said, “We will slay their sons and spare their daughters. Surely we are dominant over them.” This scripture from the Holy Qur’an is verification of the same condition described in the first chapter of Exodus where Pharaoh’s answer to this question is the same. Pharaoh said, “If it be a son, then ye shall kill him but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.” The fact is, that it was the design of Pharaoh and those with him to cause the extinction of the male children of the Children of Israel. That wasn’t accidental; that was a conspiracy. And since this destruction of the male in that day was by design and in the time of Jesus and Herod it was by design, so it is today.
Black Middle Class, Crabs in a Barrel
Some of us look around at American society and we see some Blacks doing well, making what we think is progress and wealth and prestige, and we say, “We’re moving on up now. Things aren’t so bad. Why look at Oprah, Barack Obama, P. Diddy, Tiger Woods, Clarence Thomas. Look at Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Aren’t they clear signs of progress?” Much has been said about the growth of the Black middle class and how it appears we have finally turned the corner in our quest to attain the American dream. But is this real? Is it one of the tricks of Pharaoh and his magicians? Is it designed to delay our attainment of the true Kingdom of God for His people? In reality we have the illusion, the trappings of progress, but little else to show for our 452 years in bondage as slaves and now as free slaves in North America.
Now, if we look at the proverbial crabs in a barrel, the crabs are trying to get up, but another crab is pulling the crab down. But just suppose somebody is at the top of the barrel looking at the crabs, watching the drama of the crabs. And suppose he or she says, “Come, let us deal wisely with those crabs. Let’s take a few out of the barrel and put them at the top of the barrel and let them look back down on the other struggling crabs. If we do that it will give the other crabs the notion that they, too, can get out.” But the crab that’s at the top of the barrel didn’t get out because of his own talent and ability alone. The crab got out because the master took him out and allowed him out for the master’s purpose!
Now, let’s look at the wealthy and the famous among us. They have become a buffer between the angry Black masses and White people of power and influence that have us looking at our own rich as though they have betrayed us, when the wise demons behind them have used them as a buffer to protect them from the anger of the poor White, the poor Black and the poor Brown. That is why you can never be an effective spokesperson for the hurt of your people because if you displease the crab barrel master, you are afraid that he might put you back in the barrel and not pluck you out again. But God took me out of the barrel; I don’t owe nothing to no master! I owe it all to God! And God will take us all out of the barrel; and He will never take one out, and not show the others that He can get them out too.
The enemy of the rise of our people has captured most of the Black intellectuals, the Black middle class, the Black moneyed people and told them, “Yes, you can fight for your people but only to a level that we approve of and you’d better not ever say, ‘come out of us.’ You will not be allowed to say that and you certainly will not be allowed to do that.”
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that no one person can rise above the condition of his people. Then neither can the Black middle class rise above the condition of the masses.
Spiritual Wickedness in High Places
Well, this is 2007, but the weight of the police force is still against Blacks and Latinos, so the police are still fulfilling what they were originally organized for. And the police need people on the police force, Black and Hispanic as well as White, who make examples of the Black and the Brown and the poor. So, you fill your jails with them. In 1957, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was in a debate with J.B. Stoner, the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. It was a debate in written correspondence. Mr. Stoner said that in the future, the Klan will not wear robes. They would be in the various police departments, in the various offices of government. They would be in corporate America, but their idea would be the same as those who had the hoods and hanged and castrated and beat Blacks and burned crosses on their lawns. And this is what we are seeing today. Thurgood Marshall became a Justice in the Supreme Court, one of our first Black men to serve on the Supreme Court. He was one of the lead attorneys who fought for equality in education. But Thurgood Marshall became disillusioned on the Supreme Court and he said these words, “The KKK used to wear white, but now they wear black.” What was Thurgood Marshall saying? That in the highest court of the land, the mentality of the Supreme Court was the same as the lynchers and murderers of our people since slavery. The same mentality that was on the plantation is now in the highest court of the land and also from the highest political offices and even religious offices. And this is why Paul said, “We war not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Given these dire statistics and this desperate condition we must ask some hard questions of our spiritual leaders. According to statistics, almost nine of every 10 Blacks consider themselves Christian, but I must ask our religious leaders, whose preachers are we? Who do we belong to? See, if we truly belong to Christ, we can say, “Come out of her and be not partakers of her sins and her plagues.” So we have to ask our religious people, even Muslims, who want to water down the religion to make ourselves pleasing to American government and politics in a time of hatred for Islam, whose Imams are we? Whose Rabbis are we? Are you comfortable asking your flocks to come out and separate themselves from this evil world of wickedness, into righteousness and decency and help The Mahdi or Jesus Christ or the Messiah to build the Kingdom of God on earth? Can you do that? Are you willing to do that? If not … why not?
I must remind you that Jesus had an altogether different disposition than most of us as religious leaders are willing to show. It is written that on his return, he was not going to come to bring peace to the earth. He said, “Think not that I come to bring peace, nay a sword.” On his return, he’s seen coming back with a sword in his hand dripping with blood. He comes to execute the wicked to establish his Kingdom on earth. So, I can’t follow Bush! I cannot follow the rulers of this world!
Pharaoh’s Modern Army
Should we desire to come out of this and create something new and better under the guidance of God? Should we separate from this? Wait, just think … Pharaoh has actually let us go. Pharaoh has nothing more for us to do except fight in his unjust wars or serve in his prison industrial complex. Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron, “Rise up and get you forth from among my people, both you and the Children of Israel, and go serve the Lord as you have said.” But he only did this after the last plague, which was the plague of death. Death came into his house and killed his firstborn and then after that he said, “Take your people and just get out of here!” Then, Moses gave the Children of Israel God’s command and they did according to the word of Moses. But then Pharaoh had a change of heart because the slaves that God wanted to use, that He produced and purified through the furnace of affliction, Pharaoh then felt threatened that they would one day supplant him. So, he decided to kill them all and he sent his army after Moses and the Children of Israel.
Now, what is the army that Pharaoh sent out to kill the Children of Israel? What is this army that the modern Pharaoh has sent out to kill the children of the former slaves, since we are the fulfillment of the prophetic picture of the Children of Israel? What is Pharaoh’s army? Is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a part of that army? Is the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) a part of that army? Are the pharmaceutical companies a part of that army? Is the American Medical Association (AMA) a part of that army? Are the court system and the prison system a part of that army? Is the closing of hospitals in the Black community, is that part of the plan? Is the placement of Black people near hazardous waste sites, is this a part of the armed forces that have been let loose to kill the modern Moses and Aaron and to kill the modern Children of Israel? Look at the death rates among Black people. Look at the diseases that afflict us. Look at the government policies that promote this destruction in the Black community. Is this an accident or is this on purpose? The army is behind us, but the Red Sea is in front of us and the Red Sea represents war, revolution and bloodshed that is going on. The only way we can get through that Promised Land which God has promised, is that there must be a parting of the Red Sea that the righteous may go through safely. This is why we are here today and this is why the Bible and the Holy Qur’an suggest a plan of salvation for the righteous. Are you ready to come out?
