Norfolk March Commemorates Women’s Equality Day

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

Women from all over the state recently participated in the Ida B. Wells March in Norfolk, which was organized by the NAACP and attracted elected leaders including Congressman Bobby Scott, Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander, and Dels. Bonita Anthony and Jackie Glass.

Marchers gathered at  the Chrysler Museum to commemorate Women’s Equality Day. Women in the NAACP organized the event to celebrate the legacy of Ida B. Wells and emphasize the importance of voting.

Virginia NAACP Vice President and Hampton City Branch President Gaylene Kanoyton said, “The Ida B. Wells March is very important. During that time, she really fought for the right to vote. During the suffrage march, she was not allowed to come to the front of the march, but she forced her way up to the front of the march. She fought her way through, even though Black women weren’t allowed to vote during that time. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Black women had the right to vote.”

NAACP Norfolk President Stacie Armstead said, “[Ida B. Wells] was the first woman to help women of color, to help bring the NAACP organization together. “For myself, being the first elected woman of the NAACP Norfolk branch, it’s just powerful to me.

It just shows how much she has laid the way for me to be in this position to lead others.”

The nonprofit group Red, Wine, and Blue VA, under the directorship of Penny Blue, also participated. The group educates people, especially women, on quality of life issues, such as women’s rights, health and education.

Marchers walked along Duke Street and Olney Road, to honor Wells, who died in 1931, in Chicago at age 62 from kidney disease, after blazing trails as a co-owner and crusading columnist  for the Memphis Free Speech, a Black newspaper. She spearheaded an anti-lynching campaign in the paper starting in 1892, after a mob lynched three of her friends. In 1895, she married Ferdinand L. Barnett, a Chicago lawyer, editor, and public official.

From 1898 to 1902 Wells-Barnett served as secretary of the National Afro-American Council. In 1909, she participated in the meeting of the Niagara Movement, which gave birth to the NAACP.