Although accomplishing the goal of “atonement and reconciliation” requires greater long-term involvement, many officials considered Monday’s Million Man March in the nation’s capital a success.

“[The event] was successful from the stand point that a lot of people came together with a common purpose to share their concerns many African-Americans are facing,” said Derrick Rollins, chairman of the African American Studies Program at Iowa State.

According to news reports, estimates of the multitude ranged from 1 million people by the events organizers to 400,000 by the U.S. Park Police. People shouted promises to forswear violence and improve their lives in a revival style song, news reports said.

In regard to the media’s debate over the role of the event’s chief organizer, Louis Farrakhan, Rollins said the discussion is irrelevant.

“I feel Farrakhan is a mere organizer,” Rollins said.

Rollins said he would have attended the march if he had been in Washington, D.C.

“For most blacks, it’s the common connection to bring them together,” Rollins said. “The discussion of Farrakhan is a sidetrack for us.”

Myron Samuels, an Ames business man who is an African American said, “The significance of the march should rely on its message, but not the messenger.”

And the message of it, Samuels said, is to unify all black men and support them being self-reliant.

Rather than describing the march as a rally or prayer meeting, Samuels defined it as an “educational” lesson. It was a call for black men to take responsibility for their own lives and families, and to dedicate themselves to fighting the scourges of education, unemployment and other problems, Samuels said.

“Once we start to identify the problems, we will be able to find a common way to make the good things better, the bad things good,” Samuels said.

While a stream of black men arrived at the National Mall for the Million Man March as a demonstration of black unity, ISU students in support of the march were watching the live coverage of the event and participating in discussion at the Black Cultural Center all day Monday.

“The march is certainly a good idea,” said Kyle Pierce, president of Black Student Alliance. “There’s a need everywhere for unification.”

Even at ISU, Pierce said, black students need to unite to improve academic needs and break the isolation.

“I hope all black men continue to do the thing they know is right, and at the end, accomplish the goal which the march has pursued,” added Pierce.