De Campus Life 15

Lekeiwa Rasberry is going to unite with other African-American women in a spirit of unity, spiritual healing and community involvement as part of the first Million Woman March.

Rasberry, the president of the SIUC chapter of the NAACP, is helping organize a bus for female African-American students to attend Saturday’s Million Woman March in Philadelphia at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

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Thirty women already have signed up for the trip, which costs $40 per woman for a roundtrip ticket.

Rasberry said men are not being allowed to travel with the women to the event because it is supposed to be a demonstration for women to get together and show their strengths in society.

In 1995, African-American men gathered in Washington, D.C., to atone and reconcile at the Million Man March.

Organized by an African-American grassroots organization in Philadelphia, the Million Woman March is an effort for black women to unify in finding solutions for the lack of strength in the black family and to further the development of black women as a whole.

Black women have always been the backbone of the family, Rasberry said. If you lift up the woman, you can raise up the family.

Rasberry said African-American women face such issues as discrimination, rape and drug abuse that need to be addressed.

There is a growing number of HIV-positive black women and women on drugs or in jail, she said.

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Laura Cottrell, a freshman in education from Chicago, said she is going to the Million Woman March to show her unity because it is time for the women to be heard.

Our men met, and it’s our time now, she said. This will make a difference. A lot of people think black females can’t unite. But we can all come together and be in peace and in the right frame of mind.

Ebonie Tolbert, a junior in English from Chicago, decided to go to the Million Woman March because she was overwhelmed by the power of the Million Man March.

I was so overtaken by what took place at the Million Man March, she said. When I found out that the women were going to do something, I just had to go.

Tolbert said there will be personal and community goals that will be met after the march.

As a community for black women, we will realize the structure of the family and find ways to rebuild it, she said. Personally, I think women will start to set goals for our lives and realize that we need to help our sisters.

Nancy Dawson, an assistant professor in Black American Studies, said the march will serve as a celebration of unity and pride in the African-American culture.

Although Dawson supports the idea of the march, she said another vehicle to show unity would be more effective because the African-American men already had a march.

Dawson said an economic boycott among African-American women would have been more beneficial.

For example, women tend to purchase products such as personal care items or clothes, she said. Maybe women wouldn’t purchase these things for a week. Marches start to lose their meaning if you overdo them. But it is a good thing in terms of women coming together.

Tickets cost $40, and can be purchased through the Black Affairs Council at 453-2534.