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Amid the backlash, Mallory tried to mend fences by denouncing Farrakhan's divisive rhetoric but praised the help given to her, particularly by women of the Nation of Islam after her son's father was murdered in the late 1990s.

Yet calls within the march movement for the resignation of Mallory and others who are reluctant to oppose Farrakhan's inflammatory leadership threaten to divide the entire movement.

My reaction: Here we go again. Having observed, interviewed or commented on Minister Farrakhan and his controversies for more than three decades, I'm disappointed but not surprised by this latest dust-up. The minister's anti-Semitic rhetoric, in particular, has been disrupting interracial appeals of black politicians for more than 30 years.

Among other notables, the Rev. Jesse Jackson in his first presidential campaign in 1984, former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington in his first campaign a year earlier and Barack Obama in his first presidential run in 2008 were called upon to denounce anti-Semitic comments by Farrakhan without committing political suicide by alienating their own political base.

The Daily Caller, among other conservative media, has called out black lawmakers for merely meeting with Farrakhan or sharing the same stage with him.

That's OK. As African-Americans, I think we are particularly obligated to call out hate in all of its forms in our own community or lose our credibility as moral authorities in other communities.

Yet Farrakhan shows a very different side of himself in black communities, especially in troubled neighborhoods where his bow-tied and unarmed Fruit of Islam security patrols have brought law and order to drug-laden street corners where both are scarce.

Nevertheless, like others, I have often asked why black political leaders have such a tough time denouncing Farrakhan's bigoted remarks. Ironically, the unexpected rise of President Donald Trump, the inspiration for the women's march movement, has shown me how sensible people who don't view themselves as racist can fall for a forceful, entertaining salesman (Farrakhan was a calypso star before he converted to the Nation's version of Islam) who, though he may raise legitimate issues, also uses divisive rhetoric.

As a result, criticizing Farrakhan's bigoted remarks can be no less tricky than criticizing Trump's scapegoating of immigrants as racist. Populist demagogues turn such criticism into confirmation among their followers that they must be saying something true, even when they aren't.

The challenge, then, for black leaders and others who want to build true multiracial and multi-gender coalitions is to renounce hate and stand together with allies for truth against divisive messages that ultimately become self-defeating.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)

(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.