Gender-based violence is a global epidemic. According to the World Bank, 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. For Black women in the United States and abroad, the fear of this happening is heightened, as the too-often marginalized group has disproportionately experienced violence in their daily lives, whether it be at home, school, on the job or in their communities.
This week hundreds are expected to take to the streets to raise awareness and address the epidemic of gender-based violence at the 2022 “Defend Black Women March”. During the march, placards will be placed at Black Lives Matter (BLM) Plaza in the nation’s capital with the names of Black cis and trans women and girls who've been killed due to violence in the U.S. and globally.
“In the same indomitable spirit of Marielle Franco and her critical work of centering Black women in the favelas and other marginalized groups in Rio de Janeiro, we seek to center the lives, legacies, and leadership of Black women and gender expansive people who are at the margins,” say organizer’s of the march’s purpose.
The self-proclaimed Black feminists in charge of assembling the second annual gathering come from various backgrounds. Trinice McNally, Creator & Creative Director of The Defend Black Women March and the I Support Black Women Campaign hails from London, England by way of Jamaica as a grandchild of the Windrush generation. Jaimee Swift, the Executive Director & Creator of Black Women Radicals and The School for Black Feminist Politics was born and raised in the United States as a descendant of enslaved Africans brought to the U.S. South. Also key to the march is Nakisha M. Lewis, President & CEO of Breakthrough. She is the March co-presenter.
The Defend Black Women March weekend kicks off on Friday, July 29, 2022 and culminates on Sunday, July 31, 2022. Activities include a film screening on Friday on K Street. The rally and march sets off at Malcolm X Park (Meridian Hill Park), and end at Black Lives Matter Plaza, a two-block-long pedestrian section of 16th Street NW, constructed in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
Organizers point out that the second annual march comes on the heels of an investigative report by The Guardian that found five Black women and girls were killed every day in 2020, predominantly due to gun violence, and the decision by the SCOTUS to overturn Roe v. Wade. Registration for the 2nd Annual Defend Black Women March is now open via www.defendblackwomen.net.
