The New York City march organized by the Women’s March Alliance to take place on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018, on the first anniversary of President Donald J. Trump’s presidency is not the second anniversary of the inaugural and pivotal Women’s March of 2017 that you are familiar with.
On Jan. 21, 2017, the day after the inauguration of President Trump, the Women’s March on Washington descended on the nation’s capital, was organized by a team including Carmen Perez, Tamika Mallory, Bob Bland and Linda Sarsour.
Mallory, who serves as co-chair of last year’s historic protest and co-president of the Women’s March board, comments on her Facebook, “Linda Sarsour … she said words that will remain etched in my memory forever — ‘This movement is not about any one of us — the biggest act we can do is to drop our egos and do the work.’ ”
Doing the work is exactly what they did. The Women’s March was not a single-day event, the work lasted throughout 2017 and included “A Day Without a Woman,” a work stoppage campaign; a public campaign against the NRA, who according to Mallory “does not care about Black and Brown communities,” and are only concerned about Second Amendment rights of White men; and culminated in October with a multi-day summit in Detroit to convene and develop their longterm strategy and vision.
The women’s march scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018, around the country is sponsored by EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, which announced their official sponsorship of the Women’s March on Washington.”For over 30 years, EMILY’s List and its millions of members have stood firm against lawmakers who would seek to turn back the clock on women’s progress. On Jan. 21, we will be proud to stand in solidarity with the tens of thousands of marchers descending on Washington, D.C. and rallying across the country. Strong progressive women not only will hold the Trump administration accountable, but also lead the way toward ensuring all our elected leaders protect the rights of women, their families, and their future. Together, we will fight to stop any rollback of rights of Americans in our communities and at the ballot box,” says Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List, in a statement.
It may seem confusing because many of the images that you’ve seen promoting today’s march includes images of leaders who were the faces and billboards for last year’s movement. Mallory cleared up the confusion on her Twitter account, “Please RT. There are a lot of marches out there that use the @womensmarch name but don’t uphold our principles. This anniversary weekend is for everyone, but not all actions happening around the country are #womensmarch affiliated.”
Please RT. There are a lot of marches out there that use the @womensmarch name but don’t uphold our principles. This anniversary weekend is for everyone, but not all actions happening around the country are #womensmarch affiliated. pic.twitter.com/qlbUm7cq5d
— Tamika D. Mallory (@TamikaDMallory) January 20, 2018
Mallory further distinguishes the objectives of the movement on Facebook:
