Little Rock's first annual March for Black Women and Girls was both a celebration and a memorial.
About 100 people, mostly Black women, gathered at The Bernice Garden in Little Rock Saturday afternoon to socialize, dance, patronize Black women-owned businesses and hear a lineup of speakers and poets discuss the trials and treasures of being both Black and female in the U.S.
"Black women are often left out of history, but to their daughters, their importance and significance has never been a mystery," said Victory Jackson, a rising sophomore at Philander Smith College and one of three spoken-word poets who performed at the event.
Andrea Fresh, a lifelong Little Rock resident, said the city has never had an event for Black women and girls "on this level" before.
"We've always had community things, like at churches, but everything is in pockets," she said. "We don't have a collective place to come and celebrate this way [until now]."
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The event was as much about recognizing Black women's struggles as it was about acknowledging their value and humanity. Coffy Davis, a local writer and the event's primary organizer, spent 6½ minutes reading a list of 92 Black women and girls in Arkansas who have been killed by acts of interpersonal violence, mostly since 2018.
One of the names was Fresh's cousin, 13-year-old Arianna Staggers, who was shot and killed in her home in North Little Rock earlier this year.
Fresh said Arianna was on her mind during the brief march on Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive, from Main Street to Cumberland Street and back. About 40 people walked and chanted "Black girl magic."
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Jones; state Rep. Jamie Scott, D-North Little Rock; and Little Rock School Board President Vicki Hatter also attended the event.
Davis described this year's march and gathering as a "pilot," and she said the next one, planned for March during Women's History Month, will hopefully include an organized march through several blocks of the city. She challenged Saturday's attendees to walk or run for a cumulative 92 minutes in honor of the 92 people on the list she read.
Two of Davis' goals in organizing the event were to raise awareness of violence against Black women and girls and to "connect people that have felt disconnected" by providing resources and networking opportunities.
"I wanted some of the speakers to get to know people in the community [and] to know what's going on because a lot of people don't know," Davis said. "Hopefully, in the future we can expand on that, and instead of three hours, it'll be a longer event."
Black women are 250% more likely to be murdered than white women, said Rosa Page, the founder and director of Black Femicide U.S.
Page is a nurse, and she started the national organization in 2019 to document the murders of Black women and girls, "and challenge media narratives of domestic violence and femicide," according to its Facebook page.
"I was disappointed in the community because they refused to discuss this issue," Page said. "Aren't Black women and girls a part of the community, or is it only when it's politically convenient?"
The event's speakers and poets all emphasized that Black women have always been actively involved in their communities but have often not received credit or recognition for their work as mothers, spouses and community leaders and organizers.
Amber Booth-McCoy, CEO of the consulting firm The Diversity Booth, encouraged her fellow Black women to "take up space" in a society that has historically excluded and objectified them.
"We are visible and invisible simultaneously in society," Booth-McCoy said. "They use our likeness and our image to sell everything from culture to vaccines and then tell us that same image is not beautiful."
Erykah Rice was one of 12 vendors who set up a booth at the event. She started the party entertainment service Dripping Paint Events last year, and she said she appreciated the visibility of an event centered on Black women's artistic and business ventures.
"It's something beautiful and something that needs to be celebrated," she said.
Gabrielle Rogers, a relative of one of the organizers, drove to Little Rock from Memphis and participated in the march. She said she hoped anyone who saw the group walking down Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive could see it as "something positive and [us] trying to uplift each other."
"I came from California, and I didn't think this was going to be an area [of the country] where Black people were accepted, but seeing this, I feel accepted in the community," Rogers said. "I think it makes Black women feel more comfortable in their own neighborhood."
