First Annual Women’s March in Myrtle Beach
MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - This weekend marks the one- year anniversary since the historic Inaugural Women's March took place in Washington D.C last year. While thousands of people are gathering together this weekend across the country, Myrtle Beach hosted its first Women's March on January 20. Women and men were invited to march about a half mile from Anderson Park to Plyler Park to speak out and raise awareness, with this year's agenda "Power to the Polls."
This event has ignited thousands of activists and new leaders. The new initiative is to increase the participation of women and minorities in voting polls by holding a nationwide tour to help get people to go to the polls and vote by tackling voter registration - to show the power that every vote holds.
Julinna Oxley, the march leader at Saturday's event says they decided to bring this march to Myrtle Beach for the first time to bring attention to the issues affecting our area. These issues include unemployment, homelessness, drug addiction, and issues affecting women. The group hopes to speak out for the voices that may be unheard. Representative Deb Butler, of North Carolina House District 18 expressed why she participated in the event, "Well I'm in the North Carolina house of representatives (chants in background) (laughs) and this is why I'm here. This is the energy behind the women's movement a renewal. People are tired of marginalizing and they are tired of bad behavior being normalized."
Julinna Oxley, Co-founder of Grand Strand Action Together, spoke about their goals for this event and said "Our goal is to bring together people who often don't talk to each other. Our grass roots organizers, our community organizers, nonprofits, people who are involved in politics, peoples who are involved in education, and to bring us together and to sit down at the table and figure out some solutions both as a community and as a country."
The group's main goal is to unite from all different backgrounds and show that women are not backing down.
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