Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Eighteen met at a Northwest Roanoke hair salon Wednesday night to keep up the momentum of last week's march on Washington.
Their new committee plans to meet regularly and reach out to the black men of Southwest Virginia. Wednesday, they started putting their heads together on ways to do that.
Eugene Preston, 15, suggested they raise money to help a new black business get started.
Three march alumni want to work with the Big Brothers organization in Roanoke to start a "rites-of-passage" program for young black men in Roanoke housing projects.
James Bumbry said he used some of his post-march backbone when he heard that the city of Roanoke was reactivating its race relations committee. He said most black members of city-sanctioned committees are quiet, noncontroversial people hand-picked by white leaders because they're unlikely to speak the truth.
So, Bumbry said, he called in a request to the Municipal Building. Because there are thousands of black registered voters in the city, select the task force members at random from those rolls, he argued. "Pick them like you do when you pick juries."
Others in the group said they have taken a critical eye to coverage of the march in The Roanoke Times and said they will let editors know how they feel. One man objected to a large, front-page picture of trash left in Washington by the marchers. "They didn't have a picture from the AP of us picking up the trash," he said.
The men, Muslim and Christian alike, began to deal with their religious differences and with the fact that they were brought together because of a march conceived of and organized by controversial Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan.
Three local ministers of the Nation of Islam praised him at Wednesday's meeting and said the Nation's discipline and national organizing ability made the march possible.
"You can't take the Torah from Moses," said one. "You can't take the Gospel from Jesus, you can't take the Koran from Mohammed, and you can't take the Million Man March from Minister Farrakhan."
Dr. Pink Wimbish III, a Roanoke podiatrist who is a Baptist and son of a Baptist minister, told the group, "When somebody asks you about Minister Farrakhan, tell them, 'God can use anyone he wants to.'''
For information on activities of the Million Man March Committee, call Lisa Preston at the Hair Is salon, 344-8163, or (800) 871-1734.
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