A few weeks before the 20th anniversary of the Million Woman March, hundreds of Black women mobilized in Washington, D.C. last Saturday for the March for Black Women.

The rally was spearheaded by the civil and human rights organization Black Women’s Blue Print. A statement from the group said the gathering aimed to “denounce the propagation of state-violence and the widespread incarceration of Black women and girls, rape and all sexualized violence, the murders and brutalization of trans women and the disappearances of our girls from our streets, our schools and our homes.”

Saturday’s demonstration coincided with the March for Racial Justice. The intertwining of the two events was absolutely intentional, according to the executive director of Black Women’s Blue Print, Farah Tanis.

“I said to myself that there will not be another March for Racial Injustice that does not truly center black women and their issues,” Tanis told the Washington Post.

March for Racial Justice organizer Dorcas Davies said she and her co-organizers began planning the march after the acquittal in June of Minnesota policeman Jeromino Yanez, who killed Black motorist Philando Castile in July 2016.

“The reality is that these are everyday occurrences,” Davies said. “Charlottesville was horrific, but it’s not every day like that in Charlottesville. But for people of color, it’s like this every day.”

The organizers of the March for Black Women told the Post they wanted their demonstration to cater to women who felt left out of the Women’s March on Washington. Many women of color believed the January march was geared toward White feminism and felt excluded by the rally.

“In this highly political moment of the 20th anniversary of the Million Woman March, the March for Black Women will amplify the struggles of Black women in the rural South—the “Black Belt,” and demand a cease and desist of all threats to those of us who are immigrant women across the country living in fear of deportation,” the rally’s statement continued.

“On September 30, 2017, Black cis and trans-identified women will remove the gags from our mouths, protest in collective action and lift the foot of imperialist white supremacist patriarchy off our necks,” the page read. “We call on every Black woman from every U.S. city, every walk of life, every demographic to rise together within our differences and face our common oppressors.”

Both marches held individual rallies before congregating at Lincoln Park and marching to the Department of Justice.

Below are pictures from Saturday’s march:

https://twitter.com/B_RadWill/status/914182361515950080

https://twitter.com/JessicaLBYRD/status/914154453846151171

What happened when the two marches came together, you ask?

March for Black Women
March for Racial Justice
Washington D.C.