Fall has never felt crisper as thousands of protesters unite in Washington D.C. on Saturday (30 September 2017) with their fists up high and feet steady for rallies half a mile apart.
The March for Racial Justice and the March for Black Women held independent rallies in the morning before converging in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood to march in unison and eventually marching together on the Mall.
Love in arms, purpose aligned
The March for Racial Justice began at 10 a.m. in Lincoln Park, where invited speakers talk about the mass incarceration of people of colour, Islamophobia, hate speech and violence and through this march aims to “harness the national unrest and dissatisfaction with racial injustice into a national mobilization that strengthens local and nationwide efforts for racial equity and justice.”
Travel half a mile to Seward Park, Activists are gathered for a separate march- the March for Black Women where speakers spoke on subjects including education, domestic violence and the wage gap and through this have a mass mobilization centered on Black women and empower them to take a stand to take back what belongs to them- freedom and liberty.
Although much smaller, the Black Women’s march did not accidentally coincide with the former.
“I heard about the March for Racial Justice, and I didn’t think there would be space for black women,” said Farah Tanis, a founder of the group Black Women’s Blueprint and an organiser of the march.
Echo the past, change the present, Unite the future
The March for Racial Injustice and The March for Black Women, along with 15 related marches were scheduled to take place around America in light of the protest in Charlottesville, Virginia whereby activists clash with White Nationalists in their effort to tear down white Superiority. The marches are also in solidarity for NFL players, owners and staff who took the knee after Trump’s blatant criticisms on their “disrespect to the flag”.
These protests don’t show signs of slowing down and it should continue to do so, to riot against injustice in America, and all over the world.
Image: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images
