Black Voices Diary

Our bus departed this morning from the hotel at 5 a.m. EST to attend the pre-Million Woman March ceremonies at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia. Despite the cold and rainy weather, hundreds of people came together to pray and begin the procession. Some of the women expressed disappointment that Muslim men, who were providing "security" for the women marchers, wanted to march out in front and instructed the women to march "behind" them.

Nevertheless, the two-mile march from Liberty Bell to City Hall was rather peaceful and uneventful. There were a number of marching bands performing and playing along the procession. Yeah, they were all that!

The crowd quickly built to what appeared to be a million strong. Organizers said as many as 2 million people were on hand. The scene was absolutely beautiful: a sea of beautiful women of various shades of brown. Their spirts were strong and it showed. They sang songs, they held hands, they said "I love you" to one another.

They listened attentively to the flow of speakers gracing the podium including the founder of the Million Woman March, Phile Chionesu; actress Jada Pinkett; rapper/activist Sistah Souljah; Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and Winnie Mandela, among many others.

Hollywood stars were out as well, including Faith Evans, Blair Underwood, Marjory Avery and Dick Gregory. The crowd was entertained by a variety of great talent featuring everything from jazz, R&B, rappers and gospel." The entertainment went over very well with the crowd. It was strong and soulful.

About lunch -- oh, yes, we made time for lunch, but only because we hadn't eaten all day and were about to drop. We walked over to the food vendors and realized we would not be able to eat for at least two hours if we waited in line, so we went to the back of a truck, explained our situation of being reporters and you guessed it -- we got our lunch. We munched on the best fried fish sandwiches we had ever tasted!

The day culminated in an uplifting speech by Winnie Mandela. She was absolutely awesome and one could not help but be struck by her presence. She challenged women of color around the world to unite, stand up and move forward on the issues raised in the Million Woman March platform.

The Million Women March was a great achievement for African-American women. It has been our privilege to document and cover this historic event for the Black Voices family.

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