With an alarming number of black girls disappearing in the nation’s capital, the Thurgood Marshall Council for Social Justice, an auspice of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust Inc., held a challenging conversation surrounding female activism, social justice and self-esteem.
The March 29 discussion, titled “Justice Is a Black Woman,” had an all-black female panel consisting of some of the District’s top activist groups, including D.C.’s Black Lives Matter organizer April Goggans, Howard University NAACP Vice President Deja Bryant and moderator Kristina Jacob, chair for the National Black United Front D.C.
“It is really important to have this conversation,” Goggans said. “There is so much going on in D.C. right now and with the rest of the world, particularly with our girls, and it is important to people to remember that none of this is possible without regarding and trusting and centering our women.”
The D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter plans to partner with the D.C. Black Youth Project 100, an activist member-based organization dedicated to creating justice and freedom for all black people, to organize conversation that will challenge Mayor Muriel Bowser and city police on missing children, Goggans said.
The forum also discussed education and female equality, with a revolving message of community, unity and mutual support between black women and other segments of the black population.
The 2016 Social Justice Lecture Series at the Thurgood Marshall Social Justice Resource Center aims to provide citizens with resources and tools needed to fight discrimination, poverty and injustice.