Baltimore Rally, March Planned For International Women's Day 2017

BALTIMORE, MD — In honor of International Women's Day, there are several happenings planned around the city of Baltimore.

International Women’s Day has been recognized on March 8 since 1913 as a way for women around the globe to advocate for equal rights. This year the organizers of the Women's March on Washington have planned a campaign to coincide with the event called "A Day Without A Woman," encouraging women to wear red in a show of solidarity, to refrain from working and to refrain from spending.

The Women's Fightback Network of Maryland/D.C. has events on the schedule for women, transgender and non-gender-conforming individuals from 3 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8. The grassroots organization called the event "International Women's Day Strike & March," urging people to "call out sick, don't go to school, don't shop."

Here is a rundown of the agenda:

• Meet at 3 p.m. at Peoples Park, 2011 North Charles Street, for rally, music, food, poetry and speeches.
• Walk from Peoples Park to Fallsway at Eager street to "demand an end to the prison industrial complex" in a show of support for incarcerated women, according to Women's Fightback Network.
• Walk to Douglas Homes, where housing organizers will call for an end to the privatization of public housing.
• Meet at 6 p.m. at McKeldin Square, Light & Pratt Street.

These organizations have endorsed the event: Douglas Homes Housing Organizer Annie Chambers; Johns Hopkins Voice for Choice; Hopkins Feminists; Peoples Power Assembly; Rev. Sherelle Witherspoon, Baltimore, NAACP Secretary; Students for a Democratic Society, JHU; National Lawyers Guild Baltimore chapter; CCBC Students for Social Justice; and Baltimore Palestine Solidarity.

Pictured, a sign at the Women's March in Baltimore on Saturday, Jan. 21. Photo by Elizabeth Janney.

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