{"id":90934,"date":"2015-10-15T18:33:15","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T22:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=90934"},"modified":"2015-10-15T18:33:15","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T22:33:15","slug":"one-million-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/15\/one-million-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"One Million Strong"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Million Man March, twenty years later.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Roderick Terry, Silhouettes<\/i>, 1995.<\/p><\/div>\n

October 16 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Million Man March. The photographer Roderick Terry, then age thirty, was there as more than a\u00a0million black men crowded Washington, D.C.\u2019s National Mall, \u201ctransforming it,\u201d he writes, \u201cinto a sea of blackness.\u201d \u201cThe March still ranks as one of the greatest moments of my life,\u201d Terry says. \u201cIt was a spiritual awakening of the highest order \u2026 Amid the crowd was an air of total calm and peacefulness unlike anything I\u2019ve ever felt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terry\u2019s photographs of the March will be on view at the Sol Studio<\/a>,\u00a0in Harlem, from October 21 through November 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the day of the March, Terry, having awoken at five thirty in the morning, walked to the National Mall to find thousands of men already there. He\u2019d bought a new camera and ten rolls of black-and-white film with the intention of documenting the March closely and intimately; his colleagues at the district attorney\u2019s office had spoken of the event with a dismissive skepticism, certain that it would devolve into mass arrests. Instead, Terry met men from all walks of life. He saw<\/p>\n

\n

an old man from Philadelphia who was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War; a father from Savannah who wanted to teach his son the values of fairness and equal justice; a Wall Street trader from New York City who had grown weary of the fast lane and was searching for a more meaningful life\u2019s purpose; and a group of Morehouse College students who came to stand in solidarity with their brothers. In one fell swoop we shattered the public perception that one million black men could come together in a peaceful demonstration of love, atonement, and brotherhood.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

His photos were later collected in a book, One Million Strong<\/em>, and they\u2019re a part of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture\u2019s permanent collection. He hopes that presenting them for the March\u2019s twentieth anniversary will help draw attention to contemporary parallels. \u201cThe outcry for atonement, equal justice, and fair play at the Million Man March parallels the Black Lives Matter Movement of today,\u201d he says. \u201cThe approach may have changed from obedient resistance to agitation and confrontation, but the same issues continue to resonate.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

By Any Means Necessary<\/i>, 1995.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Glory<\/i>, 1995.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

I Am a Man<\/i>, 1995.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Old Man<\/i>, 1995.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Peace, 1995<\/i>.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Public Enemy<\/i>,\u00a01995.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Sea of Blackness II<\/i>, 1995.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Seriousness of Purpose<\/i>, 1995.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Fruit of Islam<\/i>, 1995.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

This Is History<\/i>, 1995.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Dan Piepenbring is the web editor of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Million Man March, twenty years later. October 16 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Million Man March. The photographer Roderick Terry, then age thirty, was there as more than a\u00a0million black men crowded Washington, D.C.\u2019s National Mall, \u201ctransforming it,\u201d he writes, \u201cinto a sea of blackness.\u201d \u201cThe March still ranks as one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[19811,19813,10031,19812,100,19810,19814,10401,941],"class_list":["post-90934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-19811","tag-african-american-history","tag-anniversaries","tag-million-man-march","tag-photography","tag-roderick-terry","tag-sol-studio","tag-the-nineties","tag-washington-dc"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPhotos of the Million Man March, Twenty Years Later<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Roderick Terry captured the event with ten rolls of black and white film.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/15\/one-million-strong\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One Million Strong by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 15, 2015 \u2013 The Million Man March, twenty years later.October 16 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Million Man March. 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