On its 25th anniversary, organizers pledge another Million Woman March next year

Organizers of the Million Woman March, which brought massive crowds to Philadelphia and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 1997, observed its 25th anniversary Tuesday by announcing plans for a Million Woman World March next year.

The purpose of the Oct. 25, 1997, march, founded by Philadelphia human-rights activist Sis. Empress Philé Chionesu, was to inspire Black women to work together to improve conditions for themselves, their families, and their communities.

“It was always about justice and self-determination,” Chionesu said.

At a news conference Tuesday evening, Chionesu announced that the National Million Woman March will also establish a Million Woman March Universal Movement to advocate for women taking action to improve their lives around the globe.

She called it the first “Global Movement for Women and Girls of African Descent” and said the group will implement a “BlacXPrint Agenda 25 Direct Action Program.”

“The Million Woman World March will not only connect women of African descent worldwide, but will provide opportunities for uplifting women in the areas of education, health, and politics.”

Chionesu, who once owned the Stilt Walkers store on South Street, did not provide a date for the world march in 2023.

The 1997 march was a daylong event of prayers, music, and inspirational speeches that started at the Liberty Bell and ended at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

It was considered a huge success, especially because it was organized at a grassroots level without the support of national Black organizations like the NAACP or the Nation of Islam, which had backed the planning of the Million Man March in Washington two years earlier.

Among the women who spoke at Philadelphia’s Million Woman March were Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of then-South African President Nelson Mandela; U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California; Jada Pinkett Smith, the actor; Sista Souljah, the rapper; and Attallah and Ilyasah Shabazz, two of Malcolm X’s daughters.

Estimates of the attendance varied widely, with some placing the attendance at half a million, and police guessing from 300,000 to 1 million. However, Chionesu said that there were photographs that showed as many as 2.5 million women came, despite light rain and cool temperatures.

Some of the women who participated in that march gathered for a 25th Reunion Zoom meeting Tuesday, where they talked about much work still needed to be done to help Black communities.

One woman decried that violence against women seems to be worse 25 years later.

“Here we are 25 years later, and we’re going to be very real now about what’s going on with Black women,” said Kimberly Masters, who was out of the country in 1997 and didn’t attend the march.

“What do you think we can do, and should do now, to make things better for women and girls?” Masters said. “… Given the fact that violence in the community is now rampant. Rape, molestation, kidnapping, and [there are] missing Black women and girls all over the country. The numbers are unbelievable.”

In an interview Wednesday, Chionesu said she has grown tired of people coming together to talk about problems: “But they don’t have a plan of action.”

Over the last five years, she has been working with organizers in other cities, including Detroit, Chicago, Newark, N.J., Baltimore, Memphis, and Washington, to make plans to organize women to create and develop new businesses.

Those cities and Philadelphia make up what she calls the “seven sister cities.” She plans to add New Orleans to the sister-city network next year.

There will be a Million Woman March Party that will introduce programs for self-defense and self-reliance and a Million Woman March Ministries that will provide services to women who are incarcerated.

Chionesu said she has requested a meeting with Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw because her group would like to receive regular reports on the number of attacks on women. However she hasn’t yet heard a response from the commissioner.

The 1997 march was notable because it attracted so many participants without any nationally known figures promoting it.

After a first year of planning in 1995, Chionesu asked Asia Coney, then a public housing activist, to be a national cochair of that march. Coney is now a resident member of the Board of Commissioners at the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

It came together quickly using grassroots methods, such as word-of-mouth, Black-owned media, fliers, and women-networks to spread the word.

For example, Chionesu gave out fliers to fellow merchants, who came to her South Street store, and they took them to African American festivals around the country during the summer of 1996.

In October 1997, women came to Philadelphia from across the country by plane, bus, train, and car. The Black Past reported that “an estimated 125,000 women arrived from Chicago and New York.”