Black women took center stage at the Women's March
Orlando-area black women showed out with strength Sunday during the Women’s March at Lake Eola.
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| Read her sign |
Late last week local black social-media channels were buzzing with many people complaining that local black women were underrepresented in the program of women scheduled to speak to the crowd gathering to protest discrimination and mistreatment of women and the leadership of President Trump.
As of Saturday, some black women in Orlando said they would not attend because black women were not being treated fairly by the event organizers. Similar concerns erupted with other women’s marches held over the weekend around the country.
This is a particularly sore subject because political pundits credit black women voters with helping the Democrats win recent crucial elections in Virginia and Alabama.
Organizers in Orlando apparently took the concerns seriously and last-minute changes were made in the program to add some black women in prominent roles, including giving Florida House candidate Sheena Meade a speaking role on the stage.
During her comments, Meade told the crowd of more than 2,000 the under-representation of African-American women in the program was the “elephant in the room”.
She invited a large group of black women to come from backstage carrying folding chairs to join her on stage.
Meade went on to quote the late Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, who said: “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
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