4,000 join Arkansas women's march at state Capitol

LR rally’s organizer surprised by turnout for day of speeches

Participants in the Women’s March for Arkansas walk west Saturday along Capitol Avenue in Little Rock toward the state Capitol.
Participants in the Women’s March for Arkansas walk west Saturday along Capitol Avenue in Little Rock toward the state Capitol.

"This may be the most Arkan-sassy thing I have ever seen in my life," Camille Richoux said to a crowd that thronged the state Capitol's lawn Saturday.

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Kathrine Trovini of Farmington advocates for love during Saturday’s Women’s March in Little Rock.

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Gwendolynn Combs, whose Facebook post swelled into Saturday’s protest at the state Capitol, tells the crowd in Little Rock that after Trump’s election, “I decided I would change that which I could not accept.”

Richoux, the public relations co-chairman for the Arkansas Coalition for Reproductive Justice, was one of nearly a dozen speakers who addressed participants in the Women's March for Arkansas in Little Rock, one of hundreds of such marches across the country Saturday.

Each speaker expressed astonishment that the Little Rock demonstration swelled, according to state police and organizers' estimates, to 4,000 people.

And for an hour and a half, while men and women dressed in purple waved homemade protest signs, the day's speakers expounded upon topics that ran the gamut of progressive demands, along with expressing anxieties stemming from Friday's inauguration of President Donald Trump.

[GALLERY: Photos from the Arkansas March for Women in Little Rock]

What began as a simple Facebook event created by Little Rock resident Gwendolynn Combs quickly gained traction. Within days statewide groups, including the Arkansas Democratic Party, threw their organizing resources into the event, which then attracted people from across the state.

"I am not a politician, I'm not rich and powerful, I'm not even a professional organizer. I'm just a regular person who decided I reached a point where I was ashamed to be an American. I decided I would change that which I could not accept," Combs said. "I have never done anything like this before, but I wanted to pull together maybe 100 people to show solidarity."

"I obviously had no idea how many people would be here today," she said, adding that it was a tear-worthy moment.

Saturday's march is the start of what Combs hopes could be a sustained campaign of advocacy in the state. She hopes her newfound organizing platform, now called the Be the Change Alliance, could help unify Arkansans around issues like reproductive rights, gay rights and immigration.

Saturday's speakers touched on those and other issues.

Richoux urged people to "roll up your sleeves and join the resistance" to defend women's reproductive rights at all levels of government.

Little Rock City Director Capi Peck criticized the education policies so far espoused by the new president, his Education Department nominee Betsy DeVos, and her support of contentious school-choice programs.

"America's most important civic institution is public education, and yesterday during his inaugural speech Donald Trump said we have 'an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.' How many of you were educated in public schools?" Peck said, as the crowd jeered and booed at any mention of Trump.

Mireya Reith, chairman of the state Board of Education and executive director of the Arkansas United Community Coalition, represented the state's growing Hispanic demographic and criticized state bills targeting foreigners living in the state illegally.

One of those bills -- House Bill 1042 -- would prohibit "sanctuary policies" at public universities by threatening state funding if campus law enforcement officials did not comply with federal immigration laws. It is one that "scares us the most," Reith said.

"Our legislators want to take away our rights to be able to have universities, have conversations about how to be welcoming," she said. "What this law would do is take away the protections against racial profiling of our immigrants so that any individual can be stopped and asked their status on their campus."








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Along the same lines, Sophia Said, a Pakistani immigrant who's been in the country 22 years, spoke of reported hate crimes that made headlines after the presidential election.

"This is not the America that I know, or the America I adopted, or the America that I came to 22 years ago. And I am not going to let this happen to this great country," Said said.

The Be the Change Alliance collected thousands of names and email addresses from Saturday's demonstrators, Combs said. With the harnessed momentum, she said she hopes to turn the march into an annual event.

A Section on 01/22/2017

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