Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have donated $150,000 to help stage the Million Man March, now in its 20th anniversary. This year’s march is called Justice… Or Else! According to its website, the march will be used to call for an end to “widespread death, rising racism, mob attacks and police brutality” on black people recently.
According to BET, Will Smith himself attended the first Million Man March on October 16, 1995, which was and still is organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, where “more than a million Black men gathered in Washington, D.C. to declare their right to justice to atone for their failure as men and to accept responsibility as the family head,” according to the Nation of Islam website. Farrakhan thanked the couple for their donation at a rally in Philadelphia, according to Atlanta Black Star. The publication also reports that the minister called on other black celebrities to donate, saying that he needed $1.8 million for the event. Eleven rappers have reportedly met with Farrakhan so far to discuss this.
News of the Smiths’ donation has not escaped controversy. Publications like the Conservative Tribune are framing the donation as support of a group that “has ties to the Black Panthers, a black power movement that borders on being terrorist organization.”
