Million Youth March electrifies Brooklyn community

By Johnnie Stevens, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Workers World, 18 September 2003

Thousands of shoppers and workers welcomed the Fifth annual Million Youth March at Fulton and Nostrand on Sept. 6. The MYM organizers had been in battle with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York Police Department for months over the right to have a permitted march and location. This battle impacted the outreach efforts.

City Councilmember Charles Barron from Brooklyn said: Mayor Bloomberg should have been here. The youth is our future. Barron and Councilmember Al Vann presented a proclamation to the New Black Panther Party, which sponsored the rally.

Hip-hop artist Tylibah Washington helped to bring consiousness to the youth participants and the busy Fulton street shoppers. Tylibah, in spoken word, called for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, stating that Black, Latino and poor white people are being victimized by the multinational corporations.