A California-based grassroots movement dubbed March for Black Women San Diego is on a mission to ensure that Black women are celebrated, seen and heard. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, in observance of International Women’s Day, the collective will further its mission of cultivating spaces that empower Black women by hosting its third annual march.
Founded in 2017, March for Black Women San Diego was launched following a call to action shared by a Black feminist organization dubbed Black Women’s Blueprint. Its core mission is to spread awareness about issues impacting Black women in the local community and beyond including sexual assault against Black women and girls, reproductive rights, economic justice, violence and incarceration and the horrific attacks on transwomen. The collective of women behind the movement have hosted town hall-style meetings to create dialogue around these issues and develop plans to address them. The march was created as an avenue to bring influential Black women together so they could evoke change. The inaugural march gathered hundreds of women and has consistently grown ever since.
Co-organizer Kelsey Daniels says Black women have consistently been on the frontlines fighting for justice within the African American community, and it’s time for folks to show up for them. “In terms of Black women showing up for community, specifically inside of issues that affect Black people, Black women have been some of the folks that have pulled movements together, stretching back to the Civil Rights Movement to as recently as Black Lives Matter,” she told the news outlet. “Black women have consistently done work to uplift issues that affect the race, without necessarily being centered in the work. So, March for Black Women is about being intentional in talking about issues that affect Black women and naming it for us and also encouraging other Black women to name the injustices that they are experiencing.”
Ahead of the march, organizers held the Black Womxn Save My Life summit; a multigenerational event created as a space for Black women to connect, mobilize and heal.
Black women are carving out spaces for women of color to feel empowered. In February, the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness made history by opening Dane County’s first wellness center for women of color.
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