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Volume 137, Issue 4
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Despite rainy weather, many people attended the Women’s March in Chilhowee Park on Jan. 19, 2019 Caitlyn Jordan / The Daily Beacon
Knoxville Women’s March participants brave weather to ‘Agitate, Educate, Elevate’ Valerie Lick
City News Editor
Gabriela Szymanowska
Campus News Editor Despite heavy rain, the third annual Knoxville Women’s March took place Saturday as East Tennesseans took to the street to “Agitate, Educate, and Elevate” -- the local march’s 2019 theme. The march and rally featured local speakers like former congressional candidate Renee Hoyos, Beck Cultural Exchange Center Director Rev. Renee Kesler and transgender rights activist Emma Frye. Final speakers from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy called attention to a local movement petitioning the Knoxville Utilities Board to lower its fixed energy fee. The Women’s March is a national movement, with sister marches taking place across the United States. Kimberly Peterson, spokesperson of the Knoxvillebased Women’s March Coalition of East Tennessee, said that sister Women’s Marches help call attention to local issues. “There are local organizations that you’ll see here today -- we’ve got about 40 local organizations that need volunteers, that need money to support their missions,” Peterson said. “So we continue to have a Women’s March so we can showcase all the work that’s being done in our local community to help on issues of social justice causes.” Peterson said that the march, which
began after the 2016 presidential election, has continued into 2019 because of ongoing legislative action against women and several minority communities. “The first Women’s March in 2016 was created because of the frustration with the incoming administration, knowing that there were going to be threats to certain communities,” Peterson said. “So when the election happened, it was a reaction to the results -- that women would be targeted in legislation, and the transgender community and immigrants and working-class people. What we’ve seen is a continuation of the legislation that has targeted those communities.” The national leadership of the Women’s March has faced criticism after several members of its leadership were accused of making anti-Semitic remarks. Peterson said that the Knoxville organization does not tolerate anti-Semitism. “We feel that those national members have spoken for themselves,” she said, stating that the organization has communicated with Jewish community members regarding the criticism. “(The Women’s March Coalition of East Tennessee has) shown up for the Jewish community, for the Muslim community, for the folks in all of our targeted and marginalized communities and all of our faith-oriented organizations and backgrounds. We condemn any sort of antiSemitic rhetoric or behavior.” Peterson said that the local marches have faced counter protestors in past years due to the organization’s commitment to inclusivity.
“We had a large counter protest against us last year because we have been inclusive and loving and embracing. So we’re gonna continue doing what we’ve been doing,” Peterson said. Eight speakers brought different interpretations to the local march’s theme of “Agitate, Educate, Elevate”. Frye, also a member of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, asked audience members to be aware of the rates of arrest, unemployment, homelessness, and assault faced by transgender Tennesseans. She ended her speech by challenging audience members to include transgender individuals in their activism and communities. “If you want to be welcoming to everyone, then let people be all of who they are. Their whole selves, all their strengths and experiences and concerns. And when issues come up that you’re not used to thinking of as your own, you show up and fight alongside them like someone who cares,” Frye said. Hoyos also took the stage. She spoke out about environmental, educational, and political concerns, urging protestors to vote in the 2020 election. “We are in a time of great challenge. This is a moment in history where we decide whether we remain a democracy, or slip into oligarchy,” Hoyos said. “This is our time to sound the bells of justice. Today we march. Tomorrow we work. And we work until our labor is done, until we have equity in this country, until we have peace in this country, until we have the promise of the Constitution that we have a more perfect
union.” Kesler spoke about the historical role of African-American women in activism, especially the first African-American women to vote in Knoxville. “I thought, ‘How do I transform this anger into action?” And so I began to look for women who did that,” she said. Kesler told the audience about an unnamed African-American woman in Knoxville who refused to be turned away at the polls after she gained the legal right to vote. “Ladies, African-American women and (all) women have been standing up for their rights since the beginning of time,” Kesler said. Other speakers included local feminist activist Sarah Baker, Centro Hispano Executive Director Claudia Callabero, spoken word poet Eliza Croom and Caroline Mann of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. After the rally, Kesler spoke on the ongoing necessity for the event. “I think we’ll always need the Women’s March. Because there is something about fellowship among women -- it’s sort of a sisterhood,” Kesler said. “So it’s like saying ‘How long will we need to have a sisterhood?’ It’s always there, because we encourage each other, we inspire each other, we lift each other and we empower each other. So you always have to have it. And I think that’s what this is all about”. An estimated 1,500 attendees braved the pouring rain to walk in the Knoxville Women’s March.