If you were given the question “How can the actions of an individual change a system?” Would you be able to answer it? How about if it was regarding contemporary and historical civil rights in America? Well this is exactly what we were tasked to write about in this blog post. The unit we are learning about right now is called We Shall Overcome and is focused on the civil rights movement for equal rights in America. Specifically for this blog post we were tasked with answer our unit question with an example from history and connecting it to a modern day event. I chose to further my learning about the March on Washington and the Women’s March.
This photo below is a juxtapose of the two marches side by side:
Upon first glance the connection that most might make between a march for “Jobs and Peace” and the march for women’s res that they were both a fight for equal rights among different groups of people. Both Marches had a huge impact on civil rights and equal rights around the world. The March on Washington helped lead to the passing of the civil rights legislation in 1964 to prevent discrimination of race, sex, religion gender or nationality. Although this was a huge step in the right direction towards equal right many people are still fighting for equal rights and opportunity in our society today. During Martin Luther’s “I Have a Dream” speech he states “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character”. This very inspirational speech has impacted many lives and continually helps people to fight for the rights they deserve. The Women’s March was the next step to fight for not just women’s rights but for a world that works together as one. People from all around the world felt supported by the people around them and that they were making an impact on their society, These two marches helped people who felt unheard advocates for inclusion and peace.
Photo from The March on Washington
Now that I gave you an insight of how these two marches briefly connect lets go a little deeper to truly understand each of these marches including the divisions among the organizers of each of these marches.
Although both of these marches had an positive impact on society there were also aspects which in some cases divided people more than brought them together. For instance the division within the organization of both the women’s march and the March on Washington.
The March on Washington had a great impact on both black and white people from numerous different religions. However when organizing the protest women were not taken into account to partake in the speeches, one African American Women Activist named Anna Hedgeman along with other African American women thought it would be important to make women represented and speaking at the march however the men refused, they came up with inadequate excuses as to why the women couldn’t speak. After much persistence one women by the name of Daisy Bates was allowed to say a couple works on behalf of the Black Women. She talked about women continuing to fight for equal rights and to stand strong along side men, never giving up. Many other influential women were recognized during the march however not to the extent that they should have been recognized for. Women both black and white were fighting for their rights during that march and although they weren’t fully appreciated, to this day women around the world are still fighting for equal rights.
Daisy Bates
The Women’s March as mentioned before advocated for so many rights amoung people of all races all around the world. This was a movement in the right direction and was planned to be an annual event. However as mentioned before there was a division amoung the leaders of the movement and a sense of tension between weather the march was for all women or just well of white women. There was a sort of debate as to what these women were marching for as there were so many different groups of people marching for so many different reasons. Once this tension grew there became a sense of divide and a struggle between the coloured women and white women. When the women of colour joined the planning team for the march they said they wanted to be leaders and march for women who don’t get represented as much. These disagreements between the organizers lead to anti-semitism allegations. Which split the Women’s March into two separate groups into the Women’s March and the March On group. Vanessa Wruble (one of the head leaders of the march) said that she was kicked out of the group for being Jewish. However Mallory and Perez denied these allegations and these issues became a huge dispute amoung the organizers. This was a sense of division within a cause was meant to unify and join people of different backgrounds and cultures. Now when choosing which march people attend it says something about your character and which aspects of feminist and civil rights history a person supports. This seperating has discouraged people from attending these protests and fighting for their rights. As they don’t know which aspects they support.
now that we understand the connection between these two marches lets take a step back to take a look at each march and its organizers:
The March on Washington
The Organizers
The initial Organizers of the March on Washington were known as the “Big Six” of the civil rights movement. The big six included James Farmer from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Martin Luther King Jr. from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), John Lewis from Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), A.Philip Randolph from Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Roy Wilkins form National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and Whitney Young from National Urban League. However when they decided to expand and protest for labour rights and religious freedom on top of equal rights for black and white. A number of other organizations of many different religions joined in preparation for the protest. An outline of what the protest purpose included a passage of a civil rights legislation for congress which eliminated segregation, jobs for the unemployed of all racial backgrounds, laws prohibiting discrimination while hiring, a minimum wage of $2 an house and much more. Although this march started off as a March for an elimination of segregation it turned into a protest for all people no matter their gender, race or age for “jobs and peace”.
The Women’s March
The Organizers
The Women’s March started when a women online expressed an idea regarding having a march against trump. After this idea went viral, a group of women wanted to make this idea into a reality. The women who put this group together and one of the main leaders of the march was Vanessa Wruble (a white Jewish women). The people she brought together was a group of diverse activist including Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez. They had no idea that the march would have turned out as big as they expected bringing millions together to fight for so many causes. Although this seemed like this was the next step for a united American fighting for so many different causes that so many people cared about. Behind the scenes there was a growing tension in the fight for power and privilege among the organizers. There became a divide between the coloured activists and Vanessa Wruble. Where Venessa was stating that she was being forced out of a leadership role because she was Jewish. On the other hand Tamika and Carmen state that they want to be leaders of the movement to promote equal rights and equality. After this fight amongst the organizers Vanessa ended up being kicked out of the movement. This created a the divide of a group of women leading supposed to be representing a symbol of united and togetherness.