'It’s Our Turn': The March For Black Women Placed Our Issues Front And Center

Several hundred black women united in the nation’s capital this weekend to bring attention to our own particular plights and demands at The March for Black Women.

The march — organized to bring attention to the widespread incarceration, sexual violence and murder of black  women — intentionally took place at the same time as the The March for Racial Justice. Although both marches started separately, they converged and marched together later on in the day.

At the morning rally of the march organized by Black Women’s Blueprint, Black Youth Project 100 and Trans Sisters of Color Project, the women linked arms while reciting the names of black women victims of violence. 

“Say her name!” they chanted.

The march also made sure to set itself apart from the larger Women’s March on Washington earlier this year where much of the focus was on white women and their activism. Other topics covered on Saturday included domestic violence and the wage gap to Title IX protections and the plight of black transgender women.

“Look around, look at the ways you black women show up to a march,” said Michaela Angela Davis, according to The New York Times.  “Braids, Afro-pops — y’all can’t fit that under a pink hat.”

“It’s difficult getting the issues specific to black women and girls centered within the racial-justice movement of this nation,” said Farah Tanis, the co-founder and co-executive director of the Black Women’s Blueprint to The Root.

Similar marches also took place in Miami, Phoenix and other cities nationwide.