Remembering the Million Woman March

10 Years After Philadelphia’s Million Woman March, Commemoration Events Scheduled
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Photographs from Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway 10 years ago on Oct.25 showed to America and the world a sea of women -- mostly black -- marching together in a call for unity and empowerment to tackle issues plaguing women and their families.

Two separate events this week in the City of Brotherly Love will celebrate the spirit of that day of empowerment and encourage black women to continue the quest for self-improvement and improvement of a people, organizers said.

Beginning Thursday at 3 p.m. at Eakins Oval, more than 5,000 women are expected to go “Back to the Parkway” in the event organized by Sistahs of the Million Woman March. That group includes eight of the organizers of the 1997 march, said Asia Coney, one of the march's original planners.

A smaller crowd is expected this year because they did not issue a national call for women to come to this city for this event.

“To borrow a line from our elders, we needed to clean up our own house before inviting other in,” Coney told BlackAmericaWeb.com. Still, several thousand are expected to participate from the region and a few larger cities, she said.

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My goodness!

Where has the time gone??

I remember my friends and I packed into the van, and headed to Philly from Detroit. We drove through torrential rains, we were driving blind that's how heavy the rain was. Then we'd follow cars that had "million woman march" signs in their windows, and cars followed ours cuz we had signs in our windows.

My most favorite sign that I placed in the window was

"Million Woman March or bust!"

the camaraderie was electrifying bcuz all of us black sisters knew this trip had purpose.

It was almost a no-go because when we were almost at Philadelphia, we stopped to eat in a suburb, a rural suburb-have no idea of the name, but when we walked inside of Denny's-all conversation ceased and as Tupac would've said...

"all eyes on me!"

I acknowledged the stares, but my stomach reigned supreme, and decided they could stare while i'm eating cuz i'm not leaving out w/out my Chicken Finger Salad.

That night we arrived in Philly and we weren't impressed. As a matter of fact-it was downright, rough!

We all decided we needed a shower and stopped at the first place, a motel, we came to.

Lawd, why did we do that??

It was a motel for crackheads and hookers! We rationalized that we weren't spending the night there, simply taking a shower...so we pressed our way in.

The man at the window was a schmuck, and there was a roach on the wall that froze when he saw us. I guess he thought he was invisible. we still pressed towards the room. it had a funky smell, and went to the bathroom, and it was filthy. that's it....shower can wait til we get to Marriott!

We were there all of 8 min and declared a refund was in order.

The man at the window decided contrary.

Not being one to accept "no" as an answer-I advised him to reverse his decision. We're from Detroit and I don't think he wants any of this!

Not until I threatened to call the police and advise them of drug use did he refund the money!

**skipping** The food was great, the women, young and old were beautiful esp in spirit!!

We had an issue with a waitress who attempted to inflate EVERY BLACK patrons' bill by approx $35-$40!

Can you say revolution?!

We almost turned that place out before the MWM festivities went down. :)

There were lots of hugs, tears, words of exhortation, hand holding, smiles, nods, and respectful salutations by all.

I'll always remember the MWM,and my being a part of history, but i have no desire to go back to Philadelphia!

You better recognize--revolution will always effect change, and change takes courage!

Ivent ;)