WEBVTT

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T. Morgan Dixon: I would like to tell you

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about the most powerful woman
you've never heard of.

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This is Septima Clark.

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Remember her name --

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Septima Clark.

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Dr. King called her the "the architect"
of the civil rights movement

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because she created something
called citizenship schools,

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and in those schools,

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she taught ordinary women
the practical skills

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to go back into their communities
and teach people to read,

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because if they could read,

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they could vote.

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All these women took
those organizing skills,

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and they became some of the most
legendary civil rights activisits

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this country has ever seen.

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Women like Diane Nash.

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You may know her.

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She orchestrated the entire walk
from Selma to Montgomery.

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She was the cofounder of the student
non-violent coordinating committee,

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and they integrated lunch counters,

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and they created the freedom rides.

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Or you may remember Fanny Lou Hamer,

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who sat on the floor
of the Democratic National Convention,

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and talked about being
beaten in jail cells

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as she registered people
to vote in Mississippi.

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And her most famous student:

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Rosa Parks.

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She said Septima Clark was the one

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who taught her the peaceful
act of resistance.

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And when she sat down,

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she inspired a nation to stand.

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These were just three
of her 10,000 students.

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These women stood
on the frontlines of change,

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and by doing so,

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they taught people to read
in her citizenship school model

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and empowered 700,000 new voters.

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And that's not it.

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She created a new culture
of social activism.

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Pete Seeger said it was Septima Clark
who changed the lyrics

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to the old gospel song,

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and made the anthem we all know:

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"We Shall Overcome."

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Vanessa Garrison: Now,
many of you may know us.

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We are the cofounders of GirlTrek.

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The largest health organization
for Black women in America.

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Our mission is simple.

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Ask Black women,

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80 percent of whom are over
a healthy body weight,

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to walk outside of their front
door every day

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to establish a lifesaving
habit of walking.

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In doing so,

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ignite a radical movement

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in which Black women reverse
the devastating impacts

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of chronic disease,

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reclaim the streets
of their neighborhoods,

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create a new culture
of health for their families

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and stand on the front lines for justice.

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Today,

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all across America,

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more than 100,000 Black women
are wearing this GirlTrek blue shirt

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as they move through their communities --

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a heroic force.

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We walk in the footsteps of Septima Clark.

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She gave us a blueprint for change making.

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One, to have a bold idea,

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bigger than anyone is comfortable with,

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to two,

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root down in the cultural
traditions of your community

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and lean heavily on what as come before,

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to three --

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name it.

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That one thing that everyone
is willing to work hard for --

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a ridiculously simple goal

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that doesn't just benefit the individual,

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but the village around them.

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And to lastly ...

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never ask permission
to save your own life.

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It is our fundamental
right as human beings

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to solve our own problems.

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TD: So to the women,

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all out there getting gathered
in your living rooms,

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rooting for us,

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acting crazy on social media right now,

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we see you.

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(Laughter)

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We see you every day.

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We love you.

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You are not alone,

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and our bigger work starts now.

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VG: You got us onto this stage.

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Your leadership.

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Auditing blighted streets in Detroit,

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working with hospitals
and health care systems in Harlem,

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praying over the streets of Sacramento,
Charlotte, Brooklyn, Flint

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and every community that has seen trauma,

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changing traffic patterns,

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making your streets safer,

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and most importantly,

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standing as role models.

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And it all started with your
commitment to start walking,

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your agreement to organize
your friends and family,

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and your belief in our broader mission.

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TD: It's important to me that everyone
in this room understands exactly

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how changemaking works in GirlTrek.

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One well-trained organizer has the power

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to change the behavior
of 100 of her friends.

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We know that is true

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because the 100,000 women
blowing up social media right now

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have already inspired
over 100,000 women to walk.

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(Applause)

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But that is not nearly enough,

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and so our goal
is to create critical mass.

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And in order to do that,

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we have an audacious plan
to scale our intervention.

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1,000 organizers is not enough.

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GirlTrek is going to create
the next citizenship school.

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And in doing so,

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we will train 10,000
front line health activists,

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and deploy them into the highest-need
communities in America

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because when we do,

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we will disrupt disease;

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we will create a new culture of health.

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And what we will do is create
a support system

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for one million Black women
to walk to save their own lives.

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(Applause)

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And our training is unparalleled.

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I just want you to imagine.

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It's like a revival, tent-like festival,

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not unlike the civil rights
movement teach-ins,

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and we're going to go
all across the country.

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It is the biggest announcement this week.

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Vanessa and I, and a team
of masterful teachers,

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all to culminate next year,

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on sacred ground

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in Selma, Alabama,

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to create a new annual tradition
that we are calling "Summer of Selma."

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VG: Summer of Selma will be
an annual pilgrimage

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that will include a walk --

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54 miles,

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the sacred route from Selma to Montgomery.

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It will also include rigorous trainging.

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Picture it:

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as women come to learn organizing
and recruitment strategies,

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to study exercise science,

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to take nutrition classes,

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to learn storytelling,

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to become certified
as outdoor trip leaders

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and community advocates.

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TD: This is going to be unprecedented.

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It's going to be a moment in time
like a cultural institution,

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and in fact,

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it's going to be the Woodstock
of Black girl healing.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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VG: And the need ...

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it's more urgent than ever.

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We are losing our communities'
greatest resource.

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Black women are dying in plain sight.

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And not only is no one talking about it,

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but we refuse to acknowledge
that the source of this crisis

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is rooted in the same injustice

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that first propelled
the civil rights movement.

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On December 30 of 2017,

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Erica Garner,

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the daughter of Eric Garner,

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a Black man who died
on the streets of New York

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from a police chokehold,

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passed away of a heart attack.

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Erica was just 27 years old;

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the mother of two children.

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She would be one of 137
Black women that day --

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more than 50,000 in the last year

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to die from a heart-related issue --

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many of their hearts broken from trauma.

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The impacts of stress on Black women

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who send their children and spouses
out the door each day

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unsure if they will come home alive,

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who work jobs where they are paid 63 cents

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to every dollar paid to white men,

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who live in communities
with crumbling infrastructure

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with no access to fresh
fruits or vegetables,

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with little to no walkable
or green spaces.

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The impact of this inequality
is killing Black women

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at higher and faster rates
than any other group in the country.

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But that is about to change --

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it has to.

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TD: So let me tell you a story.

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About three weeks ago --

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many of you may have watched --

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Vanessa and I and a team
of 10 women walked 100 miles

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on the actual underground railroad.

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We did it in five days --

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five long and beautiful days.

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And the world watched.

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Three million people watched
the live stream.

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Some of you in here,

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the influencers,

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shared the story.

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Urban radio blasted it across the country.

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VG: Even the E! news channel interrupted
a story about the Kardashians,

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which, if you asked us,

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is just a little bit of justice --

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(Laughter)

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to report that GirlTrek had made it
safely on our hundred-mile journey.

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(Applause)

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TD: People were rooting for us.

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And they were rooting for us because
in this time of confusion and contention,

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this journey allowed us all to reflect
on what it meant to be American.

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We saw America up close
and personal as we walked.

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We walked through historic towns,

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through dense forest,

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past former plantations,

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and one day,

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we walked into a gas station
that was also a café,

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and it was filled with men.

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They were wearing camo
and had hunting supplies,

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and out front were all of their trucks,

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and one of them had a confederate flag.

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And so we left the establishment,

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and as we're walking along
this narrow strip of road,

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a few of the trucks reared by us so close,

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and out of their tailpipe
was the specter of mob violence.

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It was unnerving.

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But then it happened.

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Right on the border
of Maryland and Delaware.

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We saw a man standing by his truck,

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the tailgate was down,

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he had on a brown jacket;

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he was standing there awkwardly.

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The first two girls in our group,

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Jewel and Sandria,

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they walked back because
he looked suspicious.

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(Laughter)

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But the bigger group,

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we stopped to give him a chance,

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and he walked up to us and he said,

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"Hi, my name is [Jake Green.]

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I heard you on Christian
radio this morning,

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and God told me to bring you supplies."

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He brought us water,

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he brought us granola,

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and he brought us tissue.

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(Laughter)

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And we needed tissue because
we had just walked through a nor'easter;

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it was 29 degrees;

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it was sleeting on our faces.

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Our sneakers and our socks were frozen
and wet and frozen again.

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We needed that tissue more than he
could have possibly understood.

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So on that day,

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in that moment,

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Jake Green renewed
my faith in God for sure,

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but he renewed my faith in humanity.

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We have a choice to make.

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In America, we can fall further
into the darkness of discord or not.

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And I am here to tell you

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that the women of GirlTrek
are walking through the streets

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with a light that cannot be extinguished.

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VG: They are also walking
through the streets

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with a mission as clear and as powerful
as the women who marched in Montgomery.

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That disease stops here.

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That trauma stops here.

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And with your support,

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and in our ancestors' footsteps,

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these 10,000 newly trained activists
will launch the largest health revolution

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this country has ever seen.

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And they will return to their communities
and model the best of human flourishing.

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And we --

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we will all celebrate.

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Because like Jake Green understood,

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our fates our intertwined.

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Septima Clark once said,

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"the air has finally gotten to a place
where we can breathe it together."

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And yet,

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the haunting last words of Eric Garner

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were "I can't breathe."

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And his daughter Erica
died at 27 years old

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still seeking justice.

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So we --

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we're going to keep doing Septima's work

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until her words become reality;

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until Black women are no longer dying;

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until we can all breathe the air together.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)