Black Women's March Organizers Reflect On A Year In Protest

NEW YORK CITY — Almost a year ago, the first Black Women's March wound through New York City. This past weekend, its co-founders celebrated Juneteenth—as they usually do— and put the finishing touches to their next event which will be on Saturday.

Black Women's March was formed out of the uprisings following the death of George Floyd with a focus on a need for more Black women in the movement.

"I was walking from a march to another march and I remembered how many Black women I saw leading marches," co-founder and actress Caroline Gombé told Patch. "And I wondered where is the women's march? Is there a Black women's march?"

Activist and organizer Kimberly Bernard answered the call.

"We wanted to carve out a space within the movement for Black women where we could fight for the oppression of all Black people, but from the perspective of Black women," Bernard told Patch.

In the past year, the group organized marches attended by thousands with the Black student-led Freedom March NYC, activists for nonviolence Warriors in the Garden, youth advocates Strategy for Black Lives and Stonewall Protest activists.

This week, Black Women's March is hosting events, including community drives for students and families, to commemorate a year in passing, culminating in Saturday's march.

"As we always do, we're going to open the mic to Black women who want to share something with us," said Gombé. "It's the part of our marches that inspires me the most."

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Bernard shared the demands that Black Women's March has made in the past year, and spoke of how President Biden's recent decision to make Juneteenth a federal holiday fits into those demands.

"Juneteenth is something that is extremely reverent for Black people," said Bernard. "But we're asking for divesting from police budgets and reinvesting into the community, for equal education, for equity in healthcare. We're asking to take steps to make sure that Black women don't die at four times the rate of white women in childbirth. Those are the things that matter to us."

Additional demands include police-free schools and replacing police in responding to mental health calls.

Gombé noticed that after the new presidential administration took office, she said participation has changed drastically. "There is a big part of the people who were part of the movement a year ago, who not only do not attend anymore, they literally do not care anymore," said Gombé. "To me personally, as an organizer, as an activist, it's disappointing because it feels like a lie."

She referred to the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, formerly known as the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which was originally introduced in 1918, re-introduced in 2019 but stalled in the Senate last year because of "broad" language.

"I don't want people to get complacent," said Bernard. I don't want people to think that it was a summer fling from last year because the fight isn't over. I want everyone to stay plugged in and devoted to the fight for Black liberation."