Speakers to mark women’s march anniversary

Activists to share stage at Power to the Polls rally today.

The final list of speakers at a rally today to mark the one-year anniversary of the Atlanta March for Social Justice & Women features two organizers of the 2017 national march in Washington, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour, and a key catalyst of the #MeToo movement, actress Alyssa Milano.

The three women will share the stage at the Power to the Polls rally in southwest Atlanta with U.S. Reps. John Lewis of Atlanta and Hank Johnson of Lithonia, and Stacey Abrams, a Democratic candidate for governor.

Nationally, the Women’s March anniversary is being celebrated by rallies dedicated to getting people to the polls and on the ballot. The march in Washington last year drew an estimated half million Americans. There were 653 sister marches across the country on that same day, including one in Atlanta in which 63,000 people marched.

Other speakers at the Atlanta rally cover a wide range of social justice issues and include attorney Anoa Changa, an activist and writer; Erica Clemmons, a labor activist and leader of 9to5; and Lucia McBath, a gun violence activist whose 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed in 2012 by a motorist at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station who objected to the rap music coming from the car in which Jordan sat.

Also speaking will be Staci Fox of Planned Parenthood Southeast; Marisol Estrada, a Georgia DACA Dreamer; Mary Pat Hector, the national youth director of the National Action Network; Nse Ufot of the New Georgia Project; and Stephe Koontz, a member of the Doraville City Council and Georgia’s first elected transgender woman. The event will feature entertainment from D J Sed the Saint, David Soleil, Chasing Lovely, and slam poet Royce Mann.

The noon to 4 p.m. rally will be held at the Bakery, 825 Warner St. S.W. in Atlanta, along the Beltline. Find details at the Power to the Polls website.