This October marks twenty-nine years since more than a million Black men marched to Washington, DC, perhaps the most wholesome and historic gathering ever of one culture of men in peace and harmony. October 16, 1995, was the day of The Million Man March (MMM)!  I was there with my fellow student Brothers marching from the hilltop of Howard University all the way down to the U.S. Capitol! An experience I will never, ever forget! I remember the beautiful sea of tranquility of Black men from every part of the country and every generation – from grandfathers to fathers, to sons with little boys hoisted on their father’s shoulders. There were brothers and cousins, uncles and nephews, best friends and neighbors, Black men known and unknown to one another on that glorious, perfect, sunny day who came from all around the country in every mode of transportation, filling the streets of my beloved Washington, DC. 

The purpose of the Million Man March was to bring together Black men in unity from all walks of life and to assert our importance, to renew our commitment to care for ourselves, our families, and our communities.  Also important that day was the role that Black women played in support of seeing that their Black men take this journey fully prepared.  Their mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, nieces who set the alarm clocks, ironed their clothes, prepared their breakfasts, packed their lunches and snacks, drove them to the bus terminals, train stations, and airports. 

Brothers, let us once again unite in a different way.  Let us March to the Polls and VOTE in support of Kamala Harris as the 47th President of the United States!  Let us make history by making her the first woman, the first Black woman, to be not only President, but Commander-in-Chief.  Black women have always supported Black men in all our causes, fighting for inclusion and equality in every aspect of our lives, most often leading the marches, fighting the tough fights. Indeed, Black women have always been the backbone of our families and communities, the economists who organize the home and finances, who have always carried the biggest load, balancing work outside the home with all the responsibilities and activities that make up a comforting and solid home. 

We owe Black women our love and support.  We owe them Kamala Harris as President of the United States, a woman who will apply those same strong attributes to each and every one of us across the country. A woman who has always been fighting for us, whether as the first Black District Attorney and first Black woman Attorney General in California, the second Black woman U.S. Senator, and first woman and first Black woman Vice President. She has stepped up for us by accepting the nomination of her party to run for the awesome job of President of the United States against an aspiring dictator, a constant liar, a cheat, a sexual predator against women, and a business fraud, Donald Trump. A man who would wreak havoc in our everyday lives! 

Vice President Harris and her Vice-Presidential running mate, Tim “Coach” Walz, are running on solid plans, not just “concepts.” Let’s march to the polls and vote for: 

 

✓   Building an opportunity economy and lowering costs for families. 

✓   Restoring two tax cuts designed to help middle class and working Americans: the Child

      Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Through these two programs,

      millions of Americans get to keep more of their hard-earned income. Harris/Walz will

      also expand the Child Tax Credit to provide a $6,000 tax cut to families with newborn

      children. Harris/Walz believe no child in America should live in poverty, and these

      actions would have a historic impact. 

✓   Making rent more affordable and home ownership more attainable: by building three

      million more rental units and homes that are affordable to end the national housing

      supply crisis in her first term; by providing first-time homebuyers with up to $25,000

      to help with their down payments, with more generous support for first-generation

      homeowners. 

✓   Growing small businesses and investing in entrepreneurs: setting an ambitious goal of 

      25 million new business applications by the end of her first term — over 10 million

      more than Trump saw during his term. To help achieve this, Kamala Harris will expand 

      the startup expense tax deduction for new businesses from $5,000 to $50,000 and take

      on the everyday obstacles and red tape that can make it harder to grow a small business.

      She will drive venture capital to the talent that exists all across our country including in

      rural areas and increase the share of federal contract dollars going to small businesses. 

✓   Strengthening and bringing down the cost of health care, including building on the 

      Biden-Harris Administration’s successes in bringing down the cost of lifesaving

      prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries by extending the $35 cap on insulin and

      $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket spending for seniors to all Americans. 

✓   Making affordable health care a right, not a privilege by expanding and strengthening

      the Affordable Care Act and making permanent the Biden-Harris tax credit

      enhancements that are lowering health care premiums by an average of about $800 a 

      year for millions of Americans. 

✓   Making our communities safer from gun violence and crime. 

✓   Protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare. 

✓   Providing a pathway to the middle class through quality, affordable education. 

✓   Investing in affordable childcare, and in long term care for our Seniors. 

✓   Protecting our Voting Rights and Civil Rights. 

✓   Protecting a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. 

✓   Supporting and respecting our service members, our Veterans and their families, their

      caregivers, and their survivors. 

✓   Protecting our very democracy by upholding our U.S. Constitution and system of laws.

✓   And so much more…. 

My Brothers, let us march to the polls for Kamala Harris and “Coach” Walz, in the spirit of the 1995 Million Man March. By doing so, we are thanking and supporting Black women of yesterday and today who have taken up the baton of fighting for us in all aspects of life. Women the likes of Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Sojourner Truth, and all the brave abolitionists – both known and unknown. We especially thank former slave, Harriet Tubman, better known as the “Black Moses” of her enslaved people who, for as many as thirteen times, crossed enemy lines in the deep darkness of the wilderness to single handedly rescue Black slaves from a life of brutal bondage. We thank Black women of yesterday, such as Rosa Parks, Dorothy Height, and Shirley Chisholm.  And we thank the Black women of today who fight in the trenches every day for a better life for Black men and their entire communities.   As a U.S. Army Veteran, I say “FORWARD… MARCH…VOTE!

Written by Fred Outten