Consortium News: 23-10-2025,
The anti-Trump demonstration was a classic astroturf operation organized by Democratic Party operatives, writes Margaret Kimberley. Real political action is different.
No Kings rally in Houston on Oct. 18. (Jill_Ion/Flickr/Public Domain)
By Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Report
Many years ago the late Glen Ford, then the Black Agenda Report executive editor, related his experience with the One Million Man March, which took place on Oct. 16, 1995, in Washington, D.C.
It was organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and was meant to be a day for Black men to “atone” for what were said to be their shortcomings. There were a multitude of opinions about whether Black men had to atone for anything at all, or whether its male orientation was sexist, or whether Farrakhan should have been the organizer. But on that day, the controversy was forgotten as somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million men attended.
Glen Ford was among them and years later he still expressed dismay at what he saw as a missed opportunity. Ford was of the opinion that the only reason to have 1 million people gather in one place was to make clear and cogent political demands. But he recalled that after many speakers came to the podium Farrakhan himself came to the stage, made obligatory thank yous to his fellow organizers and then began musing about numerology and its connections with United States history.