For Immediate Release
Jan. 4, 2022
The Black Southern Women’s Collective Weighs in on Jan. 6 Anniversary
ATLANTA – The Black Southern Women’s Collective today remembered the one-year anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The group of Black women leaders in the South issued the following statement:
“The Jan. 6 insurrection was a vivid reminder of the danger of peddling lies and stoking the flames of hatred,” said Tameka Greer, executive director of Memphis Artists for Change. “For Black people involved in liberation work, it was particularly painful to watch white supremacists being handled with velvet gloves after storming one of the nation’s most sacred institutions.”
“The scene at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was like a shot from a horror movie,” said Pastor Rhonda Thomas, executive director of Faith in Florida. “Legislators horridly ran for cover while their workplace was held hostage by extremists. Juxtaposed to the treatment of Black people and their allies who are regularly beaten, criminalized, and surveilled for protesting fatal police shootings, one can fully see the depth of sickness racism has caused.
“Jan. 6 was a physical manifestation of the violence that many Black and Brown people feared when then President Trump embraced and brought to public view white supremacists and extremists,” said Ashley Shelton, executive director of the Power Coalition for Equity & Justice.
“Americans will never forget the violence and sheer pandemonium of Jan. 6,” said Phyllis Hill, founder of the Black Southern Women’s Collective. “It is imperative that policymakers hold all who were responsible accountable.”
Contact: Sydney Bagley, sydney@spotlightpr.org
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