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FinalCall.com News
National News
Black Marriage Day celebrated across America
By Tyrone H. Muhammad
Updated Apr 22, 2008 - 3:32:00 PM
The Dallas/Ft. Worth-area was the focal point of a national celebration of “Black Marriage Day” in over 200 cities, spanning over 35 states. Black Marriage Day founder Nisa Islam Muhammad, who is also a Final Call staff writer, visited Dallas and Fort Worth. She participated in a whirlwind string of events from March 28 through March 30 to promote this special day.
“I just had an idea (about saving the institution of Black marriage). I know we can do better than what we are doing now. Generally when marriage is spoken of in our community, we are breaking up, we are the least likely to get married, and I got tired of hearing it,” said Sis. Nisa.
Her way to remedy the negative statistics and state of mind about Black marriage is to travel the country and speak with light, life and energy to about the problem.
The first stop was the Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, where she was the keynote speaker before a receptive audience and talked about “Why Marriage Matters!”
Mayor of Dallas Tom Leppert issued a proclamation marking Black Marriage Day in the city.
The next day Kim Muhammad, of the Muhammad Mosque No. 48 Department for Human Services, organized a “Walk for Black Marriage” in the heart of a predominantly Black south Dallas neighborhood. Motorists and passersby were delighted to see believers from Mosque No. 48 proudly carrying signs with positive slogans about Black marriage.
Sunday’s events began with the fifth grade class of the Muhammad School of Islam in Dallas. The children performed a play titled, “Freedom and Marriage.” The play, March 30, was based on studies of an autobiography of ex-slave Harriet Jacobs, who penned “Incidents In The Life of a Slave Girl,” said Renee X, an instructor at the school and director of the play. The audience thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Sis. Nisa delivered a short lecture on the importance of Black marriage afterward.
“Sister Nisa’s information was inspiring. She stated the facts. Marriage is down in our community. I come from a single parent household as well; it makes me want to be a good husband, and a good father,” said Robert Muhammad a 36-year-old member of the Fruit of Islam, who has been married 12 years.
“That message was beautiful. This is what our Nation and the Black community needs,” added newlywed Eric Muhammad, who has been married to wife Deirdre for three months.
In conjunction with 5,000 other couples nationwide under the umbrella of Sis. Nisa’s Wedded Bliss Foundation, Mosque No. 48 participated in a Renewal of Marriage Vows Ceremony.
Kim Muhammad along with Student Minister Jeffery Muhammad of the Dallas mosque presented three special Endurance Award Certificates to three deserving mosque couples for withstanding extraordinary trials to hold their marriages together. Bro. Jeffery served as master of ceremonies for the awards presentation.
“Our marriages are tested most in difficult times. I especially wanted to recognize the couples who exemplify the part of the vows that say for better or worse, richer or poorer, and through sickness and in health,” he said.
The celebration of “BMD” continued hours later in an extravagant setting inside the African-American Museum at historic Fair Park in Dallas. The Anthem Foundation, the Administration For Children and Families, and Active Relationships Inc., sponsored a Black marriage “Hall of Fame” ceremony. Sis. Nisa was the featured guest for the event. In her brief remarks, she talked about the “Power of One.”
Her thoughts were appropriate given that one idea from one Black woman has started a movement and is galvanizing people from different races and faiths.
Cosette Bowles, executive director of Anthem Inc., said, “If we don’t do what we’re doing today, who will our children marry tomorrow? It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes many stable marriages to make a village.”
The last event of the day was hosted by the Healthy Marriage-Healthy Families Coalition of Tarrant County and the Great Commission Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas. The keynote speaker was again Sis. Nisa. The audience also learned what happened the previous two days to promote healthy, happy Black marriages in 2008.
Cynthia Lawson, managing director of http://www.healthymarriageetc.org/, said, “I feel much honored to be a part of this movement, and I pray that I stay connected to it.”
Ms. Muhammad summed up the weekend by saying, “It has been a fabulous experience seeing Black people put in a different light. It is so wonderful hearing the heartwarming stories of couples all around the country who have said ‘I’m going to get married, stay married, and make a difference in my community.’ ”
Sis. Nisa started the Black Marriage Day movement in 2003 and because of her dedicated work in 2008 people many people see marriage in a divine light. As the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said, in his monumental lecture series “The Birth of a God,” “Marriage is a key institution, if we are going to build a strong family. If we are not concerned about family then we are not concerned about our people, and our Nation. If we have a strong family; we have the potential for a strong Nation,” the Minister said.
