(Trice Edney Wire) – During the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March on Saturday in Washington, D.C., Minster Louis Farrakhan told the crowd of 800,000 that he has been ill.
Minister Farrakhan said he had been sick with pneumonia and that he had been treated for the past 30 days. This is second time since 2014 that Minister Farrakhan, leader of the Chicago–based Nation of Islam has mentioned being ill.
During a reparations conference at Chicago State University, where he spoke, Minister Farrakhan told the audience, “My family did not want me to come here today. I just came out of the hospital, and I am in a weakened condition.” He did not disclose where he had been hospitalized or what he was suffering from.
NorthStar News Today attended the conference and after the event ended, members of the Fruit of Islam surrounded Minister Farrakhan escorted him from the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center, where the event was held. Several speakers and audience member said later that Minister Farrakhan seemed to “run out of gas.”
In 2003, The Final Call, the official newspaper of the Nation of Islam, reported that Minister Farrakhan survived prostate cancer, the leading cause of cancer cases among black men and the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among black men, according to the American Cancer Society. He urged black men to get checked.
Minister Farrakhan founded the Final Call in 1979. In 1999, Minister Farrakhan underwent surgery for prostate cancer at Howard University.
At the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, despite being recently ill, Minister Farrakhan, who is 82, had his old vitality back. He spoke for two hours.
