..ism. Separate David from the Psalms because of what happened in David's life. And you never separated Solomon from the building of the temple because they say he had a thousand concubines. And you never separated any of the great servants of God. whether you like it or not. God brought the idea through me and he didn't bring it through me because my heart was dark with hatred and anti-semitism. He didn't bring it through me because my heart was dark and I'm filled with hatred for white people and for the human family of the planet. If my heart were that dark, how is the message so bright, the message so clear, the response so magnificent? And so we stand here today. At this historic moment, we are standing in the place of those who could not make it here today. We are standing on the blood of our ancestors. We are standing on the blood of those who died in the Middle Passage, who died in the fields and swamps of America, who died hanging from trees in the South, who died in the cells of their jailers, who died on the highways, and who died in the fratricidal conflict that rages within our community. We are standing on the sacrifice of the lives of those heroes, our great men and women, that we today may accept the responsibility that God has put upon us, not only to be good husbands and fathers and builders of our community, but God is now calling upon the despised and the rejected to become the cornerstone and the builders of a new world.

And so our brief subject today is taken from the American Constitution. In these words, toward a more perfect union. Toward a more perfect union. Now when you use the word more with perfect, is that which has been brought to completion. So when you use more perfect, you're either saying that what you call perfect is perfect for that stage of its development but not yet complete. When Jefferson said toward a more perfect union, he was admitting that the union was not perfect. That it was not finished. That work had to be done. And so we are gathered here today not to bash somebody else.

We're not gathered here to say all of the evils of this nation. But we are gathered here to collect ourselves for a responsibility that God is placing on our shoulders to move this nation towards a more perfect union. It means in the direction of, in furtherance or partial fulfillment of, with a view to obtaining or having, shortly before, coming soon, imminent, going on in progress. Well, that's right. We're in progress toward a perfect union. Union means bringing elements or components into unity. It is something formed by uniting two or more things. It is a number of persons, states, etc., which are joined or associated together for some common purpose. We're not here to tear down America. America is tearing itself down. We are here to rebuild the wasted city. What we have in the word tort is motion.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that motion is the first law of the universe. This motion which takes us from one point to another, shows that we are evolving, and we are a part of a universe that is ever-evolving. We are on an evolutionary course that will bring us to perfection or completion of the process, toward a perfect union with God. And that law is, everything that is created is in harmony with the law of evolution. Change. Nothing is standing still. It is either moving toward perfection or moving toward disintegration. Or under certain circumstances doing both things at the same time. for this evolutionary changing, affecting stage after stage until we reach perfection. In Arabic it is called Rab. And from the word Rab, you get the word Rabi, or teacher, one who nourishes a people from one stage and brings them to another stage. Well, if we are in motion, and we are, motion toward perfection, and we are, there can be no motion toward perfection without the Lord, who created the law of evolution and is the master of the changes. Our first motion, then, must be toward the God who created the law of the evolution of our being.

And if our motion toward Him is right and proper, then our motion toward a perfect union with each other and with government and with the peoples of the world will be perfected. So let us start where the process leading to that perfect union must first be seen. Now brothers and sisters, the day of atonement is established by God to help us achieve a closer tie with the source of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and power. For it is only through a closer union or tie with Him who created us all, with Him who has power over all things, that we can draw power, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding from Him that we may be enabled to change the realities of our life. A perfect union with God is the idea at the base of atonement. Now, atonement demands of us eight steps. In fact, atonement is the fifth Look at our division. Not here, out there. We as a people who have been fractured, divided, and destroyed because of our division, now must move toward a perfect union. on the banks of the James River in 1712, 68 years before our former slave masters permitted us to join the Christian faith.

Listen to what he said. He said, quote, in my bag I have a foolproof method of controlling black slaves. I guarantee every one of you, if installed correctly, it will control the slaves for at least 300 years. My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves, and I take these differences and I make them bigger. I use fear, distrust, and envy for control purposes. I want you to listen. What are those three things? Fear, envy, distrust. For what purpose? Control. To control who? Us! Listen! He said, these methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies, and they will work throughout the South. Now, take this simple little list and think about it. On the top of my list is age, but it's only there because it starts with an A, and the second is color, or shade. There's intelligence, sex, size of plantation, status of plantation, attitude of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley or on a hill, north, east, south or west, have fine hair or coarse hair, or is tall or short.

Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action. But before that, I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than adulation, respect, or admiration. The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry it on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands of years. Now don't forget, you must pitch the old black male against the young black male and the young black male against the old black male. You must use the female against the male and you must use the male against the female. You must use the dark-skinned slave against the light- skinned slave and the light-skinned slave against the dark-skinned slave. You must also have your white servants and overseers distrust all blacks. But it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. They must love, respect, and trust are your keys to control. Use them! Never miss an opportunity! And if used intensely for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful. Thank you, gentlemen." End of quote. So spoke Willie Lynch, 283 years ago. And so as a consequence, we as a people now have been fractured, divided, and destroyed, filled with fear, distrust, and envy. Therefore, because of fear, envy, and distrust of one another, many of us as leaders, teachers, educators, pastors, and persons are still under the control mechanism of our former slave masters and their children. And now, in spite of all that division, in spite of all that divisiveness, we responded to a call. And look at what is present here today. We have here those brothers with means and those who have no means, those who are uneducated, those who are business people, those who don't know anything about business, those who are young, those who are old, those who are scientific, those who know nothing of science, those who are religious and those who are irreligious, those who are Christian, those who are Muslim, those who are Baptist, those who are Methodist, those who are Episcopalian, those of traditional African religion.

We got them all here today. And why did we come? We came because we want to move toward a more perfect union. And if you notice, the press triggered every one of those divisions. You shouldn't come, you're a Christian, that's a Muslim thing. You shouldn't come, you're too intelligent to follow hate. You shouldn't come, look at what they did, they excluded women, you see? They played all the cards, they pulled all the strings. Oh, but you better look again, Willie. There's a new black man in America today, and that is that from this day forward, we can never again see ourselves through the narrow eyes of the limitation of the boundaries of our own fraternal civic, political, religious, street organization or professional organization. We are forced by the magnitude of what we see here today that whenever you return to your city and you see a black man, a black woman. Don't ask him, what is your social, political, or religious affiliation, or what is your status. Know that he is your brother. And if it needs help, you are obligated to help your brother, because he is your brother. You must live beyond the narrow restrictions of the division that have been imposed upon us.

Well, some of us are here because it's history-making. Some of us are here because it's a march through which we can express anger and rage with America for what she has and is doing to us. So we're here for many reasons, but the basic reason that this was called was for atonement and reconciliation. It is necessary for me, in as short a time as possible, to give as full an explanation of atonement as possible. As I said earlier, atonement is the fifth stage in an eight-stage process. So let's go back to the first stage of the process that brings us into perfect union with God.

is the most difficult of all because when we are wrong and we are not aware of it, someone has to point out the wrong. I want to say this again, but I want to say it slowly and I really want each one of these points to sink in. How many of us in this audience at sometime or another have been wrong. Will we just raise our hands? Okay. Now when we are wrong, Lord knows we want to be right. The most difficult thing is when somebody points it out. Do we accept it? Do we reject it? Do we hate the person who pointed out our wrong? How do we treat the person who points out our wrong? Now I want you to follow me. When you go to a doctor, you're not feeling well. The doctor says, what's wrong?

Well, I don't know, doc. Well where's the pain? Tell me something about the symptoms. You want the doctor to make a correct diagnosis. You don't smack the doctor when he points out what's wrong. You don't hate the doctor when he points out what's wrong. You say, thank you doctor, what's my prescription for healing. We all right? Now look, whoever is entrusted with the task of pointing out wrong, depending on the nature of the circumstances, is not always loved. In fact, more than likely, that person is going to be hated and misunderstood. Such persons are generally hated because no one wants to be shown as being wrong, particularly when you're dealing with government, with principalities, with powers, with rulers, with administration. When you're dealing with forces which have become entrenched in their evil, intractable, and unyielding, their power produces an arrogance, and their arrogance produces a blindness. And out of that evil state of mind, they will do all manner of evil to the person who points out their wrongs, even though you're doing good for them by pointing out where America went wrong.

Now Martin Luther King Jr. was probably one of the most patriotic Americans, more patriotic than George Washington, more patriotic than Thomas Jefferson, more patriotic than many of the presidents, because he had the courage to point out what was wrong in the society. And because he pointed out what was wrong, he was evil-spoken of, vilified, maligned, hated, and eventually murdered. Brother Malcolm had that same road to travel. He pointed out what was wrong in the society, and he had to suffer for pointing out what was wrong, and he ultimately died on the altar for pointing out what was wrong inside the nation, outside the nation, to the greater nation, and to the smaller nation. We're talking about moving toward a perfect union. Well, pointing out fault, pointing out our wrong, is the first step. The second step is to acknowledge. Oh, thank you.

Oh man, I'm wrong. To acknowledge means to admit the existence, the reality, or the truth of some reality. It is to recognize as being valid, or having force and power. It is to express thanks, appreciation, or gratitude. So in this context, the word acknowledgement means to be in a state of recognition of the truth of the fact that we have been wronged. This is the second step. Well, the third step is that after you know you're wrong and you acknowledge it to yourself, who else knows it except you confess it? You say, well, yeah, all right, but who should I confess to? And why should I confess? The Bible says confession is good for the soul. Now brothers, I know I don't have a lot of time, but the soul is the essence of a person's being.

And when the soul is covered with guilt from sin and wrongdoing, the mind and the actions of the person reflect the condition of the soul. So to free the soul or the essence of man from its burden, one must acknowledge one's wrong, but then one must confess. The Holy Qur'an says it like this, Confess my fault So grant me protection against all my faults for none grants protection against false But these it is only through confession that we can be granted protection from the consequences of our fault For every deed has a consequence and we can never be granted protection against the fault That we refuse to acknowledge or that we are unwilling to confess. So look, who should you confess to? I don't want to confess. Who should you confess to? Who should I confess to? Who should we confess to? First, you confess to God and speak to Him in the privacy of our room and confess. He already knows, but when you confess, you're relieving your soul of the burden that it bears. But then, the hardest part is to go to the person or persons whom your fault has ill-affected, and confess to them." That's hard. That's hard.

But if we want a perfect union, we have to confess the fault. But what happens after confession? There must be repentance. When you repent, you feel remorse or contrition or shame for the past conduct, which was and is wrong and sinful. It means to feel contrition or self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do. And it is the experiencing of such regrets for past conduct that involves the changing of our mind toward that sin. So until we repent and feel thick, sorry over what we have done, we can never, never change our mind toward that thing. And if you don't repent, you'll do it over and over and over again. But to stop it where it is. And black man, we cannot continue the destruction of our lives and the destruction of our community. But that change can't come until we feel sorry. I heard my brother from the West Coast say today, I atone to the mothers for the death of the babies caused by our senseless slaughter of one another. See, when he feels sorry, deep down inside, he's going to make a change. That man has a change in his mind. That man has a change in his heart. His soul has been unburdened and released from the pain of that sin. But you've got to go one step further. Because after you've acknowledged it, go one step further. Because after you've acknowledged it, confessed it, repented, you come to the fifth stage. Now you've got to do something about it. Now look, brothers, sisters, some people don't mind confessing. Some people don't mind making some slight repentance. But when it comes to doing something about the evil that we've done, we fall short. But atonement means satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury. It means to make amends. It means penance, expiation, compensation, and recompense made or done for an injury or wrong. So atonement means we must be willing to do something in expiation of our sins. So we can't just have a good time today and say we've made history in Washington. We've got to resolve today that we're going back home to do something about what's going on in our lives and in our families and in our community. Now, we all right? Can you hang with me a few more? Now, brothers and sisters, if we make atonement, it leads to the sixth stage. And the sixth stage is forgiveness. Now, so many of us want forgiveness, but we don't want to go through the process that leads to it.

And so when we say we forgive, we forgive from our lips, but we have never pardoned in the heart, so the injury still remains. My dear family, my dear brothers, we need forgiveness. God is always ready to forgive us for our failures. Forgiveness means to grant pardon for or remission of an offense or sin. It is to absolve, to clear, to exonerate, and to liberate. Boy, that's something. See, you're not liberated until you can forgive. You're not liberated from the evil effects of our own sin until we can ask God for forgiveness and then forgive others. And this is why in the Lord's prayer you say, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So it means to wipe the slate clean. And then that leads to the seventh stage. You know I like to liken this to music, because in music, the seventh note is called a leading tone.

Far so large, T. You can't stop there. T. It leaves you hung up. T. What you gotta get back to? So, so whatever you started with, when you reach the eighth note, you're back to where you started, only at a higher vibration. Now look at this, the seventh tone, the leading tone, that leads to the perfect union with God is reconciliation and restoration. Because after forgiveness now, we are going to be restored to what? To our original position. To restore, to reconcile, means to become friendly, peaceable again. To put hostile persons into a state of agreement or harmony, to make compatible or to compose or settle what it was that made for division. It means to resolve differences. It can mean to establish or re-establish a close relationship between previously hostile persons. So restoration means the act of returning something to an original or unimpaired condition.

Now when you're back to an unimpaired position, you have reached the eighth stage, which is perfect union. And when we go through all these steps, there's no difference between us that we can't heal. There's a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul. There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. We are a wounded people, but we are being healed. But President Clinton, America is also wounded. And there's hostility now in the great divide between the people. Socially the fabric of America is being torn apart, and it's black against black, black against white, white against white, white against black, yellow against brown, brown against yellow. We are being torn apart and we can't gloss it over with nice speeches, my dear Mr. President. Sir, with all due respect, that was a great speech you made today. And And you praised the marchers and they are worthy of praise. You honored the marchers and they are worthy of honor.

But of course you spoke ill, indirectly of me, as a purveyor of malice and hatred. I must hasten to tell you, Mr. President, that I'm not filled with malice. But I must tell you that I come in the tradition of the doctor who has to point out with truth what's wrong. And the pain is that power has Power and wealth has made America spiritually blind, and the power and the arrogance of America makes you refuse to hear a child of your slave pointing out the wrong in your society. They scaled from your eyes, sir, and give ear to what we say. Perhaps, oh perhaps, what these great speakers who spoke before me said, and my great and wonderful brother, the Reverend Jesse Jackson said, and perhaps, just perhaps, from the children of slaves might come a solution to this Pharaoh in this Egypt, as it was with Joseph when they had to get him out of prison.

Might come a solution to this Pharaoh in this Egypt, as it was with Joseph when they had to get him out of prison, prison and wash him up and clean him up because Pharaoh had some troubling dreams that he didn't have any answer to and he called his soothsayers and he called the people that read the stars and he called all his advisors but nobody could help him to solve the problem. But he had to go to the children of slaves because he heard that there was one in prison who knew the interpretation of dreams. And he said, bring him, bring him and let me hear what he has to say. God has put it for you in the scriptures, Mr. President. Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar couldn't read the handwriting for it. Mene mene teke lupasin. Your kingdom has been weighed in the pound, and has found one thing.

Do you want a solution to the dilemma that America faces? Then don't look at our skin color, because racism will cause you to reject salvation if it comes in the skin of a black person. Don't look at the kinkiness of our hair and the broadness of our nose and the thickness of our lips, but listen to the beat of our hearts and the pulsating rhythm of the truth. Perhaps you might be as wise as that Pharaoh and save this great nation. And so the eighth stage is perfect union with God. Well pleased with thy Lord and well pleasing. Oh brothers, brothers, brothers, you don't know what it's like to be free. Freedom can't come from white folks. Freedom can't come from staying here and petitioning this great government, but not to beg them.

Freedom cannot come from no one but the God who can liberate the soul from the burden of sin. some who are heavy laden, but all that are heavy laden. And I will give you rest." But listen, all of these eight steps take place in a process called time. And whenever a nation is involved in sin to the point that God intends to judge and destroy that nation, he always sends someone to make that nation or people know their sins, to reflect on it, to acknowledge, to confess, to repent, and to atone that they might find forgiveness with God. America, oh, America. This great city of Washington is like Jerusalem. And the Bible says, Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, you that stoneth and killeth the prophets of God, right from this house. Martin Luther King's trouble came from this house. Malcolm's trouble came from this house. W.E.B. Du Bois' trouble came from this house. And from this house you stoned and killed the prophets of God that would I would have liberated black people and liberated America, but I stand here today knowing, knowing that you are angry, that my people have validated me.

I don't need you to validate me. I don't need to be in any mainstream. I want to wash in the river of Georgia. And the river that you see, and the sea that is before us and behind us and around us, is validation. That's the mainstream. you out of touch with reality. A few of you in a few smoke-filled rooms calling that the mainstream while the masses of the people, white and black, red, yellow, and brown, poor and vulnerable, are suffering in this nation. Great America, like Jerusalem that stoned and killed the prophets of God. That a work has been done in you today, unlike any work that's ever been done in this great city. I wonder what you'll write in your newspapers and magazines tomorrow. Will you give God the glory? Will you give God the glory? Will you respect the beauty of this day? All of these black men that the world sees as savage, maniacal, and bestial, look at them! A sea of peace! A sea of tranquility! A sea of men ready to come back to God! Settle their differences! And go back home to turn our communities into decent and safe places to live!

America, America the beautiful. There's no country like this on the earth. And certainly if I lived in another country, I might never have had the opportunity to speak. As I speak today, I probably would have been shot outright, and so would my brother Jesse and so would Maulana Karenga and so would Dr. Ben Chavis and Reverend Al Sampson and all the wonderful people that are here. But because this is America, you allow me to speak even though you don't like what I may say. Because this is America, that provision in the Constitution for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and freedom of religion. That is your saving grace. Because what you're under right now is grace. And grace is the expression of divine love and protection which God bestows freely on people. God is angry, America. He's angry, but his mercy is still present Brothers and sisters look at the affliction that have come upon us in the black community Do you know why we're being afflicted?

God wants us to humble ourselves to the message That will make us atone and come back to him and make ourselves whole again Well, why is God afflicting America? Why is God afflicting the world? Why did Jesus say there would be wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes in diverse places and pestilence and famine? And why did he say that these were just the beginning of sorrow? In the last ten years, America has experienced more calamities than at any other time period in American history. Why, America? God is angry. He's not angry because you're right. He's angry because you're wrong, and you want to stone and kill the people who want to make you see you're wrong. The Bible says Elijah must first come. Why should Elijah come? Elijah has the job of turning the hearts of the children back to their fathers and the father's heart back to the people. And that's why they said Elijah must first come. And so here we are, 400 years, fulfilling Abraham's prophecy.

have said, why should you take atonement? That was for the children of Israel. I say, yes it was, but atonement for the children of Israel prefigured our suffering here in America? 440 years. They were under affliction, we're under affliction. They're under oppression, we're under oppression. God said that nation which they shall serve, I will judge. Thank you.