A Rally, a March, and a Call to Action

A Black Lives Matter rally and march will take place Saturday, July 18, at Umoja Park in Swarthmore. The goal is raising awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement and its #WhatMatters2020 priorities. These include fighting racial injustice, police brutality, economic injustice, and voter suppression, as well as advocating for common-sense gun laws, LGBTQIA+ and human rights, and reform of the criminal justice and education systems. 

The demonstration also celebrates the July 16 birthday of Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), a Black journalist and organizer who fought segregation, lynching, and the exclusion of Black women from suffrage. 

Speakers will include Media poet and activist Tonita Austin; Pendo Kamau, a member of the Racial Literacy Initiative at Strath Haven High School; U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon; and writer Amy Sisson, who is compiling a bibliography of Black history in Swarthmore. 

The rally will begin at 11 a.m. and the march will immediately follow. Yale and Kenyon avenues, Swarthmore.