Marching for women’s rights in major, blue-leaning cities like Washington D.C., New York City and Los Angeles is one thing. Marching in the Deep South of Jackson, Miss. is another thing entirely.
But that didn’t stop the hundreds of women and men who gathered outside the state’s Capitol in Jackson on Saturday to march in solidarity with the millions marching around the world.
Jaribu Hill, the Executive Director at Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, led the march and gave a speech about the importance of fighting for equal rights with movements like Black Lives Matter during the Trump presidency. A video of her powerful words was posted on YouTube by Theca Jones.
“We’ve been here before,” Hill told the cheering crowd on Saturday. “We’ve lived through others who tried to crush us, and kill us, and we’re still standing, Trump.”
State Representative Alyce Clark reportedly attended the march, as did other public figures like Miss Black Mississippi winner Kristy Johnson, who brought up the persisting issues of the school-to-prison pipeline, equal pay, and reproductive rights ― especially as those issues pertain to black women.
Hill acknowledged that fighting for justice in a place like Mississippi ― where black men and women face a huge likelihood of being incarcerated and where there is only one remaining abortion clinic due to tremendous reproductive rights stigma ― might seem futile. But she and those who rallied with her show no signs of slowing down.
“We know that we’re in Mississippi and we’re marginalized a lot,” Hill said. “But as you can see from the crowd today, we’re turning the corner on that isolation and that marginalization.”
For more on the Jackson march, watch the video above.
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Source: HuffPost Black Voices