PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — One of the country’s more controversial figures came to Pittsburgh Friday night.

After getting a standing ovation from a crowd of 500 at the August Wilson Center, Rev. Louis Farrakhan, of the Nation of Islam, addressed the controversy over his invitation.

“I’m deeply saddened about the controversy because it need not have been,” he said.

On the street, even those who know of his past remarks, say he has the right to speak.

“I didn’t have any objections to Louis Farrakhan coming to the city and speaking,” Michael Collins said. “I do think he is kind of racist.”

“No I don’t, the black community is in need of a conversation to squelch some of the violence and happenings within our neighborhoods,” Ruma Lester said.

Farrakhan took part in a nationwide radio broadcast of the Bev Smith Show on the topic of the Disappearing Black Community, whose members he says have tried too hard to keep up an artificial standard of living to be able to spend time with their children.

“So the children are being reared from television, being reared from the cable, being reared from filth and indecency that is spread now,” he said. “So there is very little love in the home. Oh, I hope you’re listening.”

Farrakhan said the black community would be the last area to get jobs from any recovery, so he challenged those who are already educated to create those jobs.

“Now I want you to listen to me good,” he said. “Because those of you who suffered and got your degree, you deserve honor, you deserve credit, but the real question is, ‘What have you done with it?’”

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