Meet The Man Who Asked Million Black Men To March

In his 62 years, Louis Farrakhan has had many roles: athlete, Calypso singer, violinist, loyal follower, religious leader, incendiary orator. Today he hopes to add something else: healer of black men.

The Million Man March held today was Farrakhan's idea. But in many respects his leadership quest began 20 years ago, when Elijah Muhammad died - and with him the Nation of Islam he had built.

Soon afterward, Farrakhan split from a new group, led by Muhammad's son, W. Deen Muhammad, and built a new Nation, rooted, he says, in the founder's teachings.

Yet in other ways, this Nation is very much Farrakhan, especially in its most controversial aspect: battles with Jewish leaders who say Farrakhan is antisemitic.

Next to Elijah Muhammad, only one other Nation leader has captured as much attention as Farrakhan: Malcolm X, who was gunned down as he spoke in Harlem on Feb. 21, 1965.

Farrakhan succeeded Malcolm X, his mentor, first as leader of the Nation's Mosque No. 11 in Boston, then as leader of the prominent Mosque No. 7 in Harlem and eventually as Muhammad's national spokesman after Malcolm X left the Nation.

Surrounded by clean-cut bodyguards wearing white shirts and bow ties, Farrakhan became to many a symbol of black hope, strength and self-determination.

Jewish remarks tied to Jesse Jackson

The friction between the Nation of Islam and Jewish groups can largely be traced back to the early 1980s and Farrakhan's efforts on behalf of another black leader with sometimes strained relations with Jews, Jesse Jackson.

Early in his 1988 presidential campaign, Jackson was accused of antisemitism after his off-the-record references to Jews as "Hymies" and New York as "Hymietown." Jackson eventually said he regretted the remarks, but Farrakhan, who had assigned men to protect Jackson, was defiant. "If you harm this man (Jackson)," Farrakhan told Jewish leaders, "I warn you in the name of Allah, this will be the last one you harm."

When some Jewish leaders compared Farrakhan to Adolf Hitler, the Muslim minister fired back by calling Hitler a "great man," although "wickedly great."

To this day, Farrakhan is questioned about a 1984 speech in which he was quoted as calling Judaism a "gutter religion." His explanation: He never called it that, but used the term "dirty religion" and was not denouncing Judaism, but those who use religion to justify more secular goals. He was speaking, he said, of Zionists who justified abuse of Palestinians on religious grounds.

He also has found himself repeatedly explaining whether he played a role in the assassination of Malcolm X. He says he did not, but he acknowledges that his heated words may have fostered an environment that helped lead to the killing.

Says UFO vision led to march

Farrakhan's Nation of Islam has had a higher national profile than its size would suggest. For years, estimates have put its number of dedicated followers at anywhere from 10,000 to 200,000, making it one of the smaller Muslim organizations in the country.

Some critics see Farrakhan as paranoid, noting his frequent assertions that AIDS and drugs were purposely introduced into black communities by whites.

His call for the march, he has said, was prompted by a vision that he had of being taken to a spaceship where he met with Elijah Muhammad. Mindful that some have snickered at the story, Farrakhan told an audience recently, "I really don't care if you think I'm a nut."

Moving to the mainstream

In the late 1980s, after Jackson distanced himself from Farrakhan, Farrakhan played a less visible role in politics. But Farrakhan re-emerged as a political force in the early 1990s and began trying to moderate his image.

Jeffrey Weintraub, director of the Washington, D.C., office of the American Jewish Committee, noted that Farrakhan and his deputies increasingly have been welcomed in church pulpits and at community prayer events and that the Nation's anti-crime patrols and health clinics in poor areas have earned commendations from officials in cities where they operate.

"He's already been invited into polite society. He's already been embraced by mainstream leaders," Weintraub said. "In a way, the legitimization of Louis Farrakhan has already occurred."

As for acceptance by African Americans on the street, David Brown says Farrakhan's strength is that he does not back down from the white establishment. Brown, a Detroit photographer, abhors Farrakhan's view of racism and sexism but sees him as "a necessary evil." Said Brown: "He has the nerve like Malcolm X did, to say the things that need to be said that Jesse Jackson and other black leaders, like the NAACP, are too political to say."

---------------------------------- NATION'S BUSINESS INCLUDES GADHAFI ----------------------------------

Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam run varied businesses in order to support their activities.

According to Chicago Tribune reports last March, these revenues allow Farrakhan to reside in a mansion that takes up three parcels of real estate in Chicago's integrated Hyde Park neighborhood.

It is unclear how much total income is generated, but the figure is significant. Examples:

-- A $5 million Chicago restaurant complex. A lien has been placed on the property, though.

-- Private-security firms, some of which have received federal contracts worth $15 million to patrol public-housing projects. Claiming the Nation discriminates by not hiring whites, some lawmakers have sought an inquiry into the contracts but complain nothing is being done. The administration says it is investigating.

-- Clothing, soap and cosmetic companies. The soap venture was launched through a $5 million, interest-free loan from Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

-- A company that publishes the Final Call, the Nation's newspaper. But a lien was recently placed on this building as well.