HARTFORD, Conn.�Min. Benjamin F. Muhammad, national director of the Million Family March planned for Oct. 16, 2000 and Nation of Islam East Coast regional representative, gathered statewide grassroots support and endorsements during a recent visit.

Min. Benjamin met day and night with community leaders, elected officials, media and the residents from Black and Latino neighborhoods, as part of a statewide organizing effort for the march in Washington, D.C.

"Connecticut as a state, has stepped up to the plate first; and the response to the call of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan for the Million Family March is tremendous. It is an excellent indication of the ground swell of momentum that is building in state capitols, as well as in the grassroots communities throughout the state of Connecticut and throughout the United States," said Min. Benjamin.

Muhammad Mosque No. 14 in Hartford, and the Million Man March Local Organizing Committee, hosted the first statewide meeting for the Million Family March Nov. 5. A standing room only crowd from cities across the state filled Mosque No. 14, Min. Benjamin urged and won support for the march.

Min. Benjamin talked about Hartford�s unique demographics as the state capitol. The majority of the city population is Black and Latino, with the Black community largely of Caribbean descent.

"The Million Family March is an opportunity for us to organize and mobilize the massive dissatisfaction among all families who have been disenfranchised and marginalized. Our families need to turn back to God and to atone, reconcile and take greater responsibility for lifting ourselves up out of the graveyard of drugs, abuse and self-destruction," he said.

Min. Benjamin�s visit came within 24 hours of a stop by President Clinton, who said poor urban neighborhoods and rural areas are untapped markets that businesses need to target.

"Our community has to be seen as more than just targets for marketing and targets for extracting capital out of the community," said Min. Benjamin. "Rather our community should be viewed as places where families live, children go to school, the elderly retire, and families are being restored and renewed. We don�t need new forms of economic exploitation. What we need is for our families to pray together, work together, stand together and demand that the market and community be fundamentally family friendly.

"President Clinton should commend the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan for calling for a Million Family March to bring this society back to its senses and back to morality and justice in public policy," said Min. Benjamin.

Million Family March endorsements came from State Representative Kenneth Green chair of the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus; Assistant Police Chief James Berry; ONE/CHANE; Warburton Church; the Black weekly Hartford Inquirer, newly elected City Councilwoman Elizabeth Horton-Sheff, and the Greater Hartford Concerned Citizens Commission.

"Isn�t God a good God because in �95 when I was on (the city) council, I introduced a resolution in support of the Million Man March and now God has sent me back just to introduce a new resolution in support of the Million Family March," said Councilmember Horton-Sheff.

"It�s good to be reunited with Bro. Benjamin Muhammad and what he�s laid out with respect to the Million Family March. I hope to be able to play a similar role with respect to the Million Family March (as with the Million Man March)," said State Senator Eric Coleman, who helped garner political support statewide for the Million Man March. He is also co-majority leader of the State Senate.

"We need to bring everyone together, because our children will benefit from this the largest family gathering in the world," added Barbara Thornton, president of the Bloomfield, Conn., board of education.

"We are not just talking about problems in the Black family," said Larry Charles, executive director of ONE/CHANE. "You can go out into the suburbs and find people making $300,000 or $400,000" with dysfunctional families, he noted.

The call for justice that is part of the Million Family March struck a chord here, where outrage over the police shooting of 14-year-old Aquan Salmon remains. A white officer shot the teenager in the back in April. Since his death, the community has galvanized behind a 1973 federal consent decree, which stemmed from a lawsuit where plaintiffs gained some changes in police tactics, but many feel the reform policies were never fully implemented.