The March for Black Women Spoke Truth to Power in Washington D.C.

Saturday, the March for Black Women convened in Washington D.C.’s Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill.

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While the Women’s March that took place on January 21 was one of, if not the, largest, organized show of protest, Angela Peoples’ infamous “Don’t Forget White Women Voted for Trump” sign and other statistics hinted at the type of discord among some women that also currently plagues Americans with X and Y chromosomes as well. 

As such, Saturday saw the March for Black Women convene in Washington D.C.’s Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill. The Black Women’s Blueprint, Black Youth Project 100 and Trans Sisters of Color Project sponsored the march, which also featured participants marching on the Justice Department and the National Mall. The march convened with the March for Racial Justice, and per the March for Black Women’s organizer, this wasn’t some random coincidence. 

“I heard about the March for Racial Justice, and I didn’t think there would be space for black women,” Farah Tanis, a founder of the group Black Women’s Blueprint and an organizer of the march told the New York Times.

As the video above shows, anecdotally there was indeed space, as participants in the March for Racial Justice took their cues from members of the March for Black Women in a show of solidarity. 

The date of September 30 also holds symbolism, as it marks the 98 year anniversary of the killing of black activists and former sharecroppers who formed a union in Elaine, Arkansas in 1919. Those killings essentially marked the end of the infamous “Red Summer”—marked by wanton and often unchecked violence against black American citizens.

“To break silences as an imperative, through art, speech, and movement is part of the legacy of women of African descent,” noted the march organizers via a statement on the accompanying website MamaBlack.org. “The September 30, 2017 March for Black Women and other demonstrations to ensure our own safety, and the survival of our communities are traditions inherited through generations, practiced in diverse ways around the world, through physical, vocal resistance and ritual to confront indignities and dehumanization.”

 

 

 

The march was particularly timely, as President Donald Trump insults hurricane-stricken citizens in Puerto Rico and continues to assail those who protest for awareness to marginalized black groups under the guise of being “unpatriotic.” That said, Saturday’s events were specifically about the historical mistreatment of black women, ending gender-biased policing against black women and other causes that traditionally draw less media attention.

For more information, visit BlackWomensBlueprint.org or MamaBlack.org.

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