U.S.: March in lock step, or else...

Bill Fletcher Jr., head of the TransAfrica Forum, a policy group focusing on African and Caribbean issues, was particularly critical of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's role in pursuing the Bush administration's policy on Haiti. Fletcher said black officials should not have expected Powell to urge the administration to move more forcefully in Haiti simply because he is black.

"We have to stop believing," Fletcher said. "We have to stop thinking that Colin Powell wants to do the right thing. If the brother wanted to do the right thing, he would have resigned."

Randall Robinson, former head of TransAfrica, was even more critical of Powell, calling him "the most powerful and damaging black to rise to influence in the world in my lifetime."

The State Department declined to respond to those remarks.