Women’s Sister Marches

Jan 23, 2017

Hundreds of thousands of people came to one of the hundreds of “Sister” Women’s marches that were being held all around the country on January 21^st. One participant in Detroit said it was the biggest march he had seen at Wayne State’s campus since the 1980s–the crowd was somewhere around 5,000 people.

Sister Women’s marches, like the one in Detroit, were held all over Michigan, in 15 cities, from Detroit to Marquette. In the capital city of Lansing, official estimates put the crowd at 8,000. But some in attendance said it was bigger than the biggest demonstrations that have been held in Lansing in recent years, including the Union-organized demonstration against so-called Right to Work legislation, that had brought 15,000 workers to Lansing.

The Detroit marchers were a spirited bunch. Homemade signs galore. Families, including several generations together. Young and old alike, the crowd streamed into the campus at Wayne State University, to assemble for a march around the campus and onto one of the main streets in Detroit, Woodward Avenue. The line of marchers extended nearly a mile, and cars and buses passing by honked in support as the marchers walked down Woodward.

For many, it was the first time they had ever gone on a march. Some said, It’s about time. We’ve just begun. Finally, something to make me get off my ass and do something. Another woman said, we should be marching through the city streets, not just on the campus.

The home-made signs spoke to the marchers’ concerns:

A young, grade school or junior high girl held this sign: Seriously–I’m more qualified than BET$Y DEVO$.

Others read:

You can’t comb over equality

Deport White Supremacy

Equal Say and Equal Pay

So Many Issues, Not Enough Sign

You know what’s YUUUGE? Racial Inequality

Honoring our parents’ FIGHTS for our daughter’s RIGHTS

And yet another woman on the march said, “What’s next?” She’s right to ask and she’s right to understand that the fight is not over.