Cellphone video of Brandon Scott & Munir Bahar speaking at 300 Men March rally: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A digital video of speeches at a 300 Men March rally in Baltimore, Maryland. The video was captured with a cellphone and has color and sound. The footage opens with Brandon Scott giving a speech about violence in Baltimore, stating that "We have to stop killing each other." Scott wears a black t-shirt with [300 / MEN MARCH] printed on it in large, white uppercase letters and holds a megaphone in his hands. Councilwoman Sharon Middleton and 300 Men March leader Munir Bahar, both of whom can also be seen wearing 300 Men March t-shirts, stand adjacent to him. He goes on to say that "The reason I don't drink alcohol is because of all the liquor [?] right here across the street. Because my dad made me clean up that mess every day." At the end of his speech, he thanks the crowd and invites them into call and response, chanting "One, two" with the crowd responding, "Three hundred."

Scott exits and at 00:01:58 300 Men March leader Munir Bahar takes the platform. After greeting the crowd, he states that "We have the National Guard on our streets, right? Do you know why? Because we don't have enough men in this community to stand up and protect it. That's why." Sirens can be heard in the background as he speaks. He goes on to state that “We started this movement in 2013. We said brothers, we gotta get engaged, we gotta do more…” Much of the rest of the speech focuses on Baltimore's increased homicide rate and the community's obligation to mentor and protect Baltimore's youth. Toward the end of the video, Bahar states that "We don't walk around telling brothers 'pull your pants up, or don't sell drugs.' We don't speak to those other issues. There are the people who do that. That's not our lane. Our message: put the guns down. If you gotta fight it out, fight it out. I'd rather a brother come home with a black eye than not come home at all."

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: May 1, 2015
• Recorded by: Aaron Bryant, American
• Subject of: 300 Men March, American, founded 2013
• Subject of: Brandon Scott, American, born 1984
• Subject of: Munir Bahar, American
• Subject of: Sharon Green Middleton, American, born 1954
• Subject of: Freddie Gray, American, 1990 - 2015
• Subject of: Unidentified Man or Men
• Type: digital media - born digital
• Type: sound films
• Type: color films (visual works)
• Medium: digital
• Dimensions: Duration: 00:08:30
• Dimensions: Total: 1019 MB
• Place filmed: Baltimore, Maryland, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: Associations and institutions
• Topic: Justice
• Topic: Men
• Topic: Politics
• Topic: Resistance
• Topic: Social reform
• Object number: 2021.76.2
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Aaron Bryant
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Aaron Bryant Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.