Filmed and Edited by Kristen Miller
For the past two years, since Trump was elected president, multiple Women’s Marches have been held nationwide, but this year allegations that organization leader Tamika Mallory is anti-semitic lead people to set up alternate marches or cancel local marches. Mallory has been associated with Minister Louis Farrakhan who is the leader of Nation of Islam, which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group.
Sherrie Cohen, an attorney running for City Council in Philadelphia said, “I don’t believe that the leaders of the women’s march are anti-semitic. I am Jewish feminist, and am happy to give my voice as a Jewish woman to say that you know, even they were at one time were attending some event that Farrakhan was at, does that by virtue of that alone make them anti-semitic? I think that’s pretty heavy standards that some have tried to put on the organizers.”
Several organizations like Black Lives Matter and the Democratic National Committee left the Women’s March. Several chapters disbanded, including the Washington State Chapter, and there were cancellations in cities like Chicago and New Orleans.
In Philadelphia, the Women’s March split in two: the official Women’s March of Pennsylvania and the Philly Women’s Rally.
Gwen Snyder, a Grassroots Movement Strategist and speaker at the march said, “There are two different marches. The organizers behind the problematic march from last year [are] at the other end of the parkway.” Snyder also noted that the Philly Women’s Rally aimed to be inclusive to trans and non-binary people, which she said “has been a problem in the Women’s March.”
Despite the various issues, thousands of people still came out from all across the tri-state area, braving near freezing conditions to participate in the two separate marches that eventually converged at Love Park and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to listen to speakers on both sides creating a rally that spanned the entirety of the Ben Franklin Parkway.
As South Philadelphia resident Talya Milskauski said, “I think as women we need to unite, so it is just always really powerful when women come together and all from different walks of life. We’re all here pushing for different causes, but at the end of the day you know we all need to support each other and just have each other’s backs.”
Women affiliated with a variety of groups have been instrumental in the reshaping of the most recent Congress which includes 102 women elected to the House of Representative and 14 women elected to the Senate, 45 of those women of color.
