2A
NEWS/ The Charlotte Post
Thursday, October 30, 1997
Rally brings sisters closer
Continued from page 1A
Gettings of Chicago. “I came
because I wanted to tune into
this. It was a sisterhood thing.”
Women flooded into
Philadelphia on airplanes, trains,
buses, cars and vans, filling hotels
and doubling up at the homes of
fiiends for an event that many
hoped would rival the Million
Man March in Washington in
1995. Crowd estimates for that
march were 400,000 from the
V.S. Park Police, who are now for
bidden by Congress to m.ake esti
mates, to more than 800,000 from
a Boston University professor, to
a million according to organizer
Louis Farraklian, head of the
Nation of Islam. That march is
; credited by some with sparking a
: new sense of responsibility and
; collective purpose in many
' Afiican American communities.
;! “I love it,” said a smiling Sheryl
i Bundle, as she looked over the
[crowd along Benjamin Franklin
f: Parkway. ‘T’m so excited to see so
i many positive sisters,
r Everybody’s excited. Everybody is
■ r friendly.”
Other women, however, said
rthey were disappointed with an
r atmosphere that, in places, more
f resembled an ordinary street fes-
l-tival than the solemn spiritual
'.•awakening that was intended. “I
;• actually felt some animosity out
[Ihere," said Veatrice Blue, 19, who
[drove from Elizabeth, N.J., with
[two friends. ‘You can sense it
•;from some of the women. It is a
Mook that they give you.”
- / Charlotte’s Cheryl Ballard, who
/flew to Philadelphia to meet four
[friends for the' march, said she
[enjoyed a “Very spiritual day.”
T felt a lot of sisterly love,” said
Ballard, owner of an events plan
ning firm.
But Ballard said she felt a bit let
down afterwards. “I felt empty,”
she said. “Tlverything went back
to the status quo.”
“I had already been feeling,
not just as females, but as a
communty as whole needs to
come together and be more sup
portive of each other. (The
march) made me feel more of
that.”
“I was surprised to see as
Ballard
many young people...a lot of
under 20s.”
IVhile the event was called for
black women, thousands of black
men turned out for the march,
often escorting their wives,
daughters or girlfriends. Also,
niale vendors came to sell their
wares, from
earrings to
sweatshirts.
Men from the
Nation of Islam
pro'vided a line
of securify for
the speakers.
“As far as I
am concerned,
this day is
about family,”
said Braheem
Jeffcoat, a North Philadelphia
resident who came to the march
with his 'vife and 5-year-old
daughter. “It is about atonement,
trying to reconcile differences, all
of the good things that we need to
be about as a people."
The Million Woman March was
the idea of Coney and Phile
Chionesu, grass-roots acti-vists
who only recently became well
known even here in their home
town of Philadelphia. Determined
to put together an event that
spoke first to the needs of women
locked in poor neighborhoods,
where they watch too many of
their men, children and neighbors
fall victim to drugs, crime or
prison. . '
In following their vision, the
organizers largely excluded main
stream groups, including sorori
ties, which are significant net
working groups for black women,
and many established ci'vil rights
groups.
Chionesu called the march “a
declaration of independence from
ignorance, poverty, enslavement,
and aU the things that has hap
pened to us that has helped to
bring about the confusion and
disharmony that we experience
with one another.”
In the end, however, the march
attracted a broad ranm of partici
pants, including soma nationally
known entertainers and political
figures. Among them were actress
Jada Pinkett; Rep. Maxine
Waters (D-Calif.); singer Faith
Evans; Cora Masters Barry, the
wife of Washington, D.C. Mayor
Marion Barry; and longtime
activist Dorothy Height.
Sister Souljah, the rap acti-vist
and author, was also there, calling
on the women to maintain their
commitment and feelings of unity
beyond the events of the march.
‘T hear a lot of people out there
today saying, sister, sister, sister,”
Sister Souljah said.
“But what is the definition of
sister? Some of you ...are here
today, but wUl be ass-butt naked
in a club tomorrow.”
As was the case with the Million
Man March, the exact turnout for
the Million Woman March is fike-
ly to be the subject of pointed
debate. City officials pegged the
gathering at anywhere from
300,000 to 500,000 people, while
speaker after speaker told the
crowd that they numbered well
over the organizers’ goal of 1 rml-
hon.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,
former wife of South African
President Nelson Mandela, said,
“We are countless in unify."
Looking out over the huge
crowd, Tynnetta Muhammad, the
wife of late Nation of Islam leader
Elijah Muhammad, said the fact
that such a large gathering was
pulled to gather by relatively
unknown grass-roots activists
will unnerve the nation's policy
makers.
“They’re not trembUng in the
White House. They are actually
getting sick,” she said. Before the
march, the organizers laid down a
12-point platform that called for a
broad range of action, including
further investigation of allega
tions that the CIA played a role in
allowing black communities to be
flooded ■with crack cocaine; the
creation of programs to help
women make the difficult transi
tion from prison back to their
communities; the establishment
of black independent schools and
the release of political prisoners.
“We want justice in this corm-
try’ Re[?. John Conyers Jr. (D-
Mich.) said.
John Minter of The Charlotte
Post contributed to this report.
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