Facing cold weather and national upheaval, women to march again
Three years after the Women’s March drew millions of people into the streets to protest Donald Trump’s election, the movement is in turmoil. But Houston — which expects roughly as many people this year as attended its first march — seems to have lost no energy at all.
Despite predicted cold weather, Houston Women March On expects between 20,000 and 25,000 people to march from Buffalo Bayou Park to City Hall on Saturday — about the same number of people who participated in the previous two years’ marches. It will likely be the largest march in Texas.
By comparison, New York and Philadelphia will both have two competing women’s marches this weekend, organized by groups at war with each other. But Chicago, where previous marches drew hundreds of thousands, won’t field even one citywide protest.
There’s no march in Austin, either. March On Texas, the statewide women’s group that organized Austin’s marches in 2017 and 2018, issued a statement that said it didn’t arrange one this year because “organizing a march in Austin has become increasingly challenging, and requires a lot of advanced notice and funding to accomplish.” Instead, the group urges Austin-area women to attend the annual Texas Reproductive
Rights Rally celebrating the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Women’s March Inc., the national group organizing its third march on Washington on Saturday, has been embroiled in controversies related to the diversity of its leadership and anti-Semitism. A black organizer was criticized for participating in an event held by Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who is often condemned as anti-Semitic.
In April, the Houston group, then known as the Houston Women’s March, called for the national organization to get its act together. “The unifying work of the Women’s March is too crucial to let the world wonder whether its national leaders are anti-Semitic and racist or whether they’re unwilling to rise above personal agendas,” the group’s board wrote in an opinion piece published by the Chronicle.
Soon after that, the Houston group changed its name to Houston Women March On and affiliated instead with the umbrella group March On. “Anyone who buys a T-shirt will know that we’ve changed, that it’s not the same as last year,” said Robin Paoli, a march organizer. On the learning curve
It comes as no surprise that the national women’s march movement is hitting turbulence, said Marcia Chatelain, a Georgetown University history professor who studies social movements. The transition from a single event to a sustainable movement is always challenging. “They’re dealing with the types of issues that any movement trying to be broad and ethical will have,” Chatelain said.
Chatelain noted that the midcentury civil rights movement’s March on Washington incubated for decades, giving time to build the local organizations and coalitions propelling it. The first Women’s March, on the other hand, came together in only eight weeks. “It’s remarkable what they were able to do,” she said.
Janice Character, vice president of the Houston group, is annoyed by criticism that the leadership of Houston Women March On lacks diversity. “Our leadership team is three black women, two Hispanics and three white women,” said Character, who’s black. “If that’s not diverse, I don’t know what is.”
The Houston group’s broad base has been a source of its strength, she said. “Other cities, with all the backlash, had to cancel because they didn’t have the support of their communities. But we’ve been able to move on. It speaks to the diversity of Houston.”
Saturday’s march, named the 2019 March for Justice, will focus not just on women’s issues, but on topics including voting rights, immigration, health care, criminal justice reform, education, housing, the environment, gerrymandering and gun violence.
Speakers will include Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, recently elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; and Rhonda Hart, whose daughter was killed in the shooting at Santa Fe High School.
Marchers will gather starting at 8 a.m. outside the Cistern in Buffalo Bayou Park. Womanowned food trucks will sell coffee and breakfast food there, and Sarah Grace, a Houston teenager who appeared on NBC’s “The Voice,” will sing.
At 10 a.m., marchers will head to a rally outside City Hall. They’ll be urged to dedicate themselves to long-term change — to register to vote, to register other voters, to volunteer with campaigns and social-action groups, or to run for office themselves. ‘Just the first leg’ of change
Houston Women March On has become a political force in Houston-area politics, said Letitia Plummer, the group’s candidate liaison. The organization sponsors an event somewhere in Houston almost every week and has a mailing list of roughly 20,000 names.
Plummer knows firsthand what sorts of help candidates need: Trump’s election inspired her to enter politics last year. She lost her bid for Congress in the primary, but in the coming year, she plans to run for an at-large City Council seat.
“The marches are incredibly important, but they’re just the first leg of creating change,” she said. “We have to work for change every day of our lives.”