By Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Lake Fong/Post-Gazette
Louis Farrakhan speaks to the audiences during a town hall meeting at the August Wilson Center, Downtown.
Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, lashed out Friday night at those who would label him anti-Semitic, saying the accusation reflects "an attitude of hatred" that members of the African-American community must avoid in order to unite and grow strong.
"I have never harmed one Jewish person. All I've done is tell the truth of what was involved in the slave trade," Minister Farrakhan said. "But because I have been charged of being an anti-Semite, and because that charge has stuck ... I have suffered rejection by my own people. I have never hated the Jewish people. If anything, I admire them."
Minister Farrakhan, 77, made the remarks during an appearance on "The Bev Smith Show," a nationally syndicated radio program broadcast live Friday night from the August Wilson Center, Downtown.
The event, attended by more than 600 enthusiastic and vocal audience members, was the second of four town hall sessions addressing the topic of "The Disappearing Black Community."
Speaking in a measured manner that flowed from softly delivered sentences to shouted points of emphasis, Minister Farrakhan said he brought a message to "the members of the human family," that had its roots in the words of Moses and the Torah, Jesus and the Gospel, and Mohammad and the Koran. His topics ranged from the dangers of fast food and the importance of family to crime in the streets and Israeli actions in Gaza.
Whether he was telling a story from American history, a parable of Jesus, or a lesson he learned as a boy being spanked by his mother, Minister Farrakhan hammered home the message of responsibility, unity and dignity.
"A community is a body of people that shares a common history, a common language, a common pain," Minister Farrakhan said. "We have indeed made progress. But the black community has disappeared. We have some fault in this matter. When segregation ended, we took our minds off of the prize.
"The black community as a community has flat-lined. You know what flat-lined means? You're dead. ...
"We could create business. Where are our factories, where is our industry? Let's get busy and do something to help ourselves."
He said part of the problem with those who are educated is that they leave the universities looking for someone to give them a job, rather than looking to create jobs.
"The worm does its job. The ant does its job. The bird does its job," he said. "You don't find blackbirds looking to redbirds for a job."
Friday night's event had been criticized by local and national Jewish groups that questioned why Ms. Smith, who lives Downtown, had invited "a rabid anti-Semite" to speak.
Minister Farrakhan rejected the criticism despite a post-program tirade against "those who control" American foreign policy and lock him out of access to national media.
"There's a group that is very small, but their influence is so large that they can direct foreign policy of this nation," he said.
"That's dangerous for America. Because if the Israelis don't like the Palestinians or the Iranians or whoever, they can manipulate."
Ms. Smith said it did not occur to her that there would be opposition to an appearance by Minister Farrakhan, whom she praised for his empathy, integrity and involvement with the African-American community, as demonstrated by his organization of the 1995 Million Man March.
Still, civil rights leader Melanie Campbell, president and chief executive officer of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, withdrew from the program because funding for one of her organization's projects would be jeopardized if she shared a stage with Minister Farrakhan.
Replacing Ms. Campbell on the program with Minister Farrakhan and U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., was civil rights activist Dorothy Tillman.
Mr. Clyburn encouraged those listening to embrace the things they heard and make the lessons part of their daily lives.
"I get a little concerned when people react to the precepts, then when the meeting is over and they go home, there is no demonstration that they heard the message."
Ms. Tillman agreed with Minister Farrakhan's statement that women were the strength of the African-American community.
"If you want to see a community, look at the women," Ms. Tillman said. "I never thought that when we got our freedoms and our rights, we would turn our backs on our community.
"I call it post-traumatic slave syndrome. It's an illness. And we have to cure it."
By Dan Majors
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