'Millions More' Event Focuses on Action

'Millions More' Event Focuses on Action: "At a news conference yesterday, organizers laid out a schedule of events that will begin midweek and run through the weekend. There will be sessions to discuss the failure of the education system to adequately teach black children, the high incarceration rate of young African American men and ways to make the political process more responsive to minority groups and, specifically, poor people who depend on assistance to survive.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has become a key rallying point. Black leaders, including Farrakhan, have said that the government's response to the hurricane and flooding was slowed because many of those in need were poor and black. It showed a world audience, they said, that although the United States tries to solve other countries' problems, its own house needs cleaning.

'Those who had their eyes closed, Katrina opened them up,' the Rev. Willie F. Wilson, pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast Washington and national executive director of the event, said yesterday. 'Those who thought we had it made will see that we don't. The masses of our people remain in impoverished conditions.'"