Students Lead Grassroots March

RACHEL BECKER Editor-in-Chief

University of Central Missouri’s student leaders organized a local Women’s March on Jan. 22. A crowd of about 60 people, filled with UCM students, faculty and staff and Warrensburg residents, gathered to march from the UCM Amphitheater to the Johnson County Courthouse in downtown Warrensburg.

“History has not always proven kind to women, but we are not asking for kindness, we are demanding what is just,” Sydney Alexander, a member of the Student Government Association, said to the crowd.

The mission of the Women’s March was to harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to empower social change. Jan. 22 would have marked the 50th anniversary of Roe versus Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in all 50 states. However, seven months ago the decision was overturned by the Supreme Court. To recognize the anniversary of Roe, and to protest the abortion ban in the United States and in Missouri.

Jessica Miller, a student at UCM, helped organize the event within only about a week. Miller said she and Darlene Budd, Professor of Political Science and International Studies, heard about the Women’s March in Kansas City and wanted to get involved.

Kansas City was planning a march in collaboration with Women’s March Inc, a national left-wing advocacy organization behind the Jan. 21, 2017 “Women’s March on Washington”.

Miller said they planned to take a group of students to KC to participate in the march, but decided to hold it in Warrensburg instead.

“We knew it was possible since we have done it before,” Miller said, referring to the local demonstration for the overturning of Roe last year. “People showed up and showed out. A lot of people came, that were UCM students and local community leaders. Plus it is really good to get local communities, like Warrensburg, to get involved in something like this.

- Jessica Miller, UCM Student

There was an emphasis at the march about it being a local and grassroots movement.

Glenda Carmack, an Office Professional from the School of Natural Sciences, spoke at the march noting, “We have to do this in Warrensburg, this grassroot commitment to issues must be everywhere.”

“We cannot let cities be the only place where our voices are heard,” Carmack said. “This county has to know that we have a right to make medical decisions about our own body.”