Dr. MAULANA KARENGA heads the  Department of Black Studies at
California State University, Long Beach and is a scholar on
Afrocentrism.   GATES: We're just over a year and a half after
the Million Man March. Did you participate in the march?
KARENGA: Oh, certainly. I helped organize the executive
committee for that and I wrote the mission statement for the
Million Man March/Day of Abstinence. The Million Man March was
led by men without the exclusion of women and the Day of
Abstinence was led by women without the exclusion of men and in
fact there were more participants in the Day of Absence than in
the Million Man March. [OVERLAPPING VOICES]  GATES: --But the
women were asked to stay at home.  KARENGA: But they always
organized, did voter registration, they did teach ins and they
also boycotted business and stayed away from other activities to
make a statement and that support was crucial to us and it was
also part of a historical statement about how we can organize if
we have vision.  GATES: What's the sig