The race problem in the United States will get worse before it gets better unless the black community unites and redefines itself, Benjamin Chavis, co-organizer of the Million Man March said Saturday said.

Chavis, former director of the NAACP, spoke to 200 people as the keynote speaker of the Sixth Annual Black Affairs Council Leadership Conference at SIUC.

The speech was the first time Chavis has spoken in a forum setting since the Oct.16 march in Washington, D.C.

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Chavis said through leadership, educational and economical venues, the black community can unite and redefine itself, making the world, as a whole, a better place..

We can’t wait for America to solve its problems, Chavis said. We have to solve them ourselves, and it is through unity that the black community can do so, Chavis said.

Chavis said during the 1960s, it was unacceptable for black Muslims and black Christians to associate with each other. It was a disjointed community like that, that has kept the black community separated.

We have leaders today, but we still don’t have the unity we need, he said. If your religion is keeping you from helping your people, you better check your religion.

Chavis served as director of the NAACP until he was fired last year for allegedly arranging to pay a former employee $332,400 of the organization’s funds to settle sexual discrimination claims against him.

Chavis said the real reason behind his termination was because he was willing to cooperate with other black leaders and communities.

Chavis said he was told that if he reached out to Lousi Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, he would probably lose his job.

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The liberation of our people is more important than any job, he said. Don’t have an agenda if at the top of the agenda is not the question of black unity.

Chavis attributed the problem of black leadership to the fact that for too long, the black community has thought that a small group of people should try to solve all of the problems of the black community.

Chavis said there is something very wrong with that premise, and that everyone should be involved with the unity of the black community.

In 1995, the question of who is a brother or sister is not defined by the color of their skin. It’s how you act in your community.

Chavis said the Million Man March was a perfect example of how the redefining of black leadership has already started through the cooperation of many groups within the black community.

One thing we proved at the march was that brothers and sisters are willing to participate, he said

Chavis said it is important for the world to know that the march was not anti-white, anti-Semitic or anti-Europe, but in fact a pro-black march.

Chavis said it is important that the world also recognize that they called for a million men to come to Washington and more than a million came, and not the 400,000 that the U.S. Park Service estimated.

They have made a movie called White Men Can’t Jump.’ Now they need to make a movie called White Men Can’t Count,’ he said. We called for a million men and over a million men came. We broke down a lot of barriers at the march.

Chavis said another huge step toward unity is for the black community to have a bigger economic empowerment in order to control the money they make and the money they spend.

But Chavis said this does not mean that the black community should separate itself from the rest society, but means they should play a bigger and more active role in society.

We need to start participating in this thing we call democracy, he said. We need to own our own things. We need to invest in ourselves.

Another important step is redefining education for the black community, he said.

Education can lead you out of the problems you face in day to day society, he said.

But education does not stand still. It is not the same world as it was in the 1950s and 1960s. Therefore the black community needs to affect the present era, he said

Don’t let education separate you from the masses of your people, he said.

Chavis said most major universities, like SIUC, do not offer a major in black-studies, so earning a degree is not enough. People need to go into the communities and educate, nurture and help the masses.

We have been majoring in white-studies for too long, he said. We need to not only learn, but learn how to build.