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Million Man March Revisited

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Parent Issue
Day
22
Month
January
Year
1996
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Robert Hunter, left, and James Pigford display a Million Man March logo that Pigford designed. Hunter is chairman of the newly formed Million Man March Association of Washtenaw County.

NEWS PHOTO LON HORWEDEL

Million Man March Revisited

Washtenaw County residents use legs to support equal ideals

'We don't want to duplicate any programs already in place. We want to do our best to support them.'
— Robert Hunter, chairman of Million March Association

By ANTHONY STEWART

NEWS SPECIAL WRITER

For those inspired by the Million Man March, the next step has come.

Some 60 people from Washtenaw County and parts of Wayne County have come together to form the Million Man March Association Of Washtenaw County.

The group, which has been meeting for about three months, plans to adopt its bylaws on Jan. 27.

“This organization doesn’t envision itself as another NAACP or a civil rights agency,” says Robert. Hunter, chairman of the association. “We don’t want to duplicate any programs already in place. We want to do our best to support them."

Hunter says the purpose of the association is to promote economic, political, social and educational growth in communities, as well as responsibility for one’s family.

“We are a group of people who are passionate about making a difference in our communities,” he says.

During the Christmas holidays, the organization’s Education Committee passed around a jar at various community functions, raising $431. The money was donated to the Ann Arbor Community Center’s Adopt A Family program.

The organization is also a sponsor of Ann Arbor educator Joe Dulin’s National African American Parent Involvement Day, an event encouraging parents to go to school with their children on Feb. 12.

Henry Davis, chairman of the Education Committee and an associate professor of history at Western Michigan University, says the Million Man March galvanized the African American community.

The march, which took placed last October in Washington, D.C., drew African American men from around the country for a rally that stressed the themes of atonement, pride and self-responsibility.

“This is an opportunity to truly define the African American male as a group,” Davis says.

Davis says the march showed African Americans they don’t have to wait on a leader to make something happen. The power lies within individuals.

The Education Committee also is planning a program that would help fathers who are behind in child support to pay off their debt by working in a day care.

He says The Million Man March Association of Washtenaw County makes him proud to be an African American male.

“It proves we’ll go the extra mile for our community,” he says. “ It also defines us in a positive way, as opposed to television and the media.”