South Bay Organizers Appeal for Support on Eve of Women's March
SAN JOSE (KPIX) -- Women's March San Jose organizers said Friday they hoped the recent controversy surrounding the national group would not affect the attendance for their event this weekend.
"Don't let the rhetoric and the rumors separate us," said lead organizer Chandra Brooks. "Let's come together, let's celebrate, let's stay united."
Millions made history when the Women's March began in 2017. But support has been dwindling, especially after the National Women's March group refused to remove co-president Tamika Mallory when she appeared on "The View" and defended her association with Louis Farrakhan.
Farrakhan is the top minister for the Nation of Islam, an organization designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of the "racist, anti-semitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric of its leaders."
"My stomach sank and as [the march] got closer, it got worse and worse and it hurt us," said Women's March San Jose lead organizer and Women's March Bay Area president Jenny Higgins Bradanini. "Our funding was down, we had to do a lot of work and we really reached out into the Jewish community."
On the eve of the march, the Women's March Bay Area website said it was still short 25 percent of the group's budget.
Bradanini said they estimate about 24,000 people will attend Saturday's march in San Jose, which is the same number of those who came out last year.
Across the country, several chapters of the march canceled plans amid the controversy.
But, in the Bay Area, organizers tried to distance themselves from the headlines.
"We have no time for anti-Semitism at all and we don't stand for that," Brooks said. "We run our organization separate from the national separate, from any other group and we know what we stand for."
The Women's March in San Jose will begin at 11 a.m. at City Hall and end at Arena Green near SAP Center. The event runs until 4 p.m.
