Black Americans gather for day of solidarity
Dubbed the Million Youth March, the theme of this year's rally was opposition to the war in Iraq and an appeal to young black Americans to stop gun violence and pursue education

NEW YORK - Several thousand black Americans came together in Brooklyn for a day of solidarity, expressing dissatisfaction with U.S. President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, an uncertain economy and police brutality.

Dubbed the Million Youth March, the theme of this year's rally was opposition to the war in Iraq and an appeal to young black Americans to stop gun violence and pursue education.

"I say to you, black youth, come out of Bush's military. There is nobody more violent than George Bush," said Malik Shabazz, national chairman of the New Black Panthers, a successor to the militant black power group of the 1960s.

"We have got a criminal in the White House. We have got a gangster in the White House," he said.

Speaking of police brutality, a rallying cry in recent rallies, Shabazz voiced frustration with going to funerals of young black men killed by police violence. "We're going to have to get to the day when we get some police funerals," he said. [p6: then again, maybe not]

The march, organized by the New Black Panthers, was peaceful. Marred by violence in recent years, police said they had made no arrests around the march as of early afternoon.

The crowd was a mix of young and old, men and women. The rally featured poetry readings and rap performances. Red, black and green flags -- the flag of black nationalism in the United States -- waved over the crowd as fists were raised with chants and cries of "black power."

"Everybody that is out here right now is here to support the black baby," said a New Black Panthers member from Philadelphia who called himself King Samir.

Within the audience, people voiced frustration with the economy, police brutality, U.S. foreign policy and the disenfranchisement of many black Americans.

"There are a number of things that we have to deal with. Young people are ... an energetic vehicle, that can help us deal with it -- such as crime, such as us injuring one another, such as business development, such as the empowerment of our community," said Job Mashariki, a Brooklyn resident.

"We have to have economic and political security for the youth," said one man who called himself Bible Souljah.

"When you have more black men and women on the unemployment list than you have working, then that's a problem," said another man from Philadelphia calling himself Divine Savior.

According to the U.S. Labor Department, the jobless rate for black Americans in August was 10.9 percent, while the rate for white Americans was 5.4 percent.