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News| Person of Year 2005 | Min. Louis Farrakhan Is 'Person of the Year'

Posted Dec. 19, 2005 -- BET.com users have selected Minister Louis Farrakhan as the 2005 Person of the Year.

An overwhelming percentage of our users agreed that Minister Farrakhan made the most positive impact on the Black community over the past year and chose him as the person most worthy to receive the honor of BET.com's 2005 Person of the Year," said Retha Hill, BET.com's vice president for Content.

They agreed that he has done what no other African American leader has: "mobilize hundreds of thousands of Blacks around the issues of atonement and empowerment, and to convince the masses of our people that we must be the primary catalysts and engines for positive change in our communities," she said.

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I am greatly honored and extremely humbled that the BET.com users have chosen me as the 2005 Person of the Year, especially since the nominees for such an honor are some of the greatest members of the Black community in the world; Ms. Oprah Winfrey, Senator Barack Obama, the father of BET Robert L. Johnson and the suffering victims of Hurricane Katrina of New Orleans," Minister Farrakhan told BET.com.

Honor is never deserved until after the work and mission is completed.  The work of the liberation of our people, and the poor and oppressed around the globe is a long, difficult, protracted struggle.

So, I accept this great honor as encouragement to work as hard as I can in the twilight years of my life to facilitate the success of this ongoing struggle.

The Next Move

Minister Farrakhan said his next move is to continue the work of building the Millions More Movement, which he said will utilize the skill and talent of our people to lift us up.

The minister told BET.com that the Millions More Movement faced many obstacles, but with faith in God, hard work, and the unity of those whose desire it was to create the movement, “we have overcome many obstacles and still are overcoming obstacles in the pathway of our success.”

In 1995, Farrakhan became the chief organizer --and a leader -- of a large rally of African-American men in Washington, D.C. Known as the Million Man March, the event was designed to encourage Black men to take personal responsibility for improving conditions in Black America. The crowd was estimated to be up to a million people or more.

Click the links on the left to read about the other nominees.

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