The Committee to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the 1997 Million Woman March

Philadelphia 1997 → the 30th anniversary, 2027

Thirty years ago, Black women gathered in Philadelphia for the Million Woman March. Three decades later, the country around us is more multiracial and multicultural than it has ever been, and that is the ground we stand on together. This commemoration, held by the Committee to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the 1997 Million Woman March, is for everyone who calls it home. Let’s talk about it.

Nearing three decades on, we open the microphone — not a march, a national dialogue.

No March is being planned.

The Committee to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the 1997 Million Woman March is a project of The Institute on Economic Apartheid, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank that promotes public dialogue — surveying affordability, safety, healthcare, childcare and housing, and how race, sex, gender, and socioeconomic status shape rights, access, and privileges.

The Committee was formed to commemorate that anniversary. It is not the 1997 March’s original organizer, and it does not speak for the March or for the women who organized it.

The Membership Drive launched on October 25, 2026. Enrollment stays open through December 31, 2026.

Join the CoalitionRead the News Room

Know someone who should be in this conversation? Send them the site — by text, email, or however you like.

The Committee to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the 1997 Million Woman March — 250 Years: Let's Talk About It!
October 25, 2026 ✦Membership Drive ✦Open Enrollment through December 31, 2026 ✦Join the Coalition ✦News Room ✦

About the term

A note on the term. Through history, and in cultures around the world, societies have separated people by class, race, sex and status. Economic apartheid names that recurring pattern, and it belongs to no single group. Understanding how those separations have shaped all of us is where common ground begins. That is what this commemoration is for.

Why now

In 1997, a million women gathered to be counted. As the 30th anniversary approaches, the Committee convenes to be heard — in dialogue, on the record.

The cost of simply living has become its own form of exclusion. Rent, care, medicine, and safety are too often sorted along lines of race, sex, gender, and class — a pattern called economic apartheid, one that shapes who gets to stay, thrive, and belong. The Committee’s role is to understand and document it.

This commemoration is not a backward glance, and it is not a march. It is a survey of the present, gathered from the ground up — testimony by testimony, block by block. The Committee collects the data, as a think tank does, so that everyday Americans and the independent entities that serve them are better informed.

What the survey listens for

Six pressures shaping everyday life.

01

Affordability

The everyday cost of living — and who is being priced out of their own communities.

02

Housing Costs

Rent, ownership, and displacement: who gets to stay, and who is pushed out.

03

Healthcare

Access, quality, and the cost of staying well across race, sex, and class.

04

Childcare

The care economy and the impossible math facing working families.

05

Safety

What it takes to feel secure — in homes, streets, and institutions.

06

Rights & Access

How race, sex, gender, and status shape rights, access, and privilege.

Join the Coalition

Add your name as a member.

Tell the Committee who you are and how to reach you — as an individual, or on behalf of your organization, school, group or business. Everything you share stays with the Committee, and it is what lets the Committee reach you with the survey and what comes next.

Open Enrollment

The Membership Drive launched October 25, 2026 and stays open. Enrollment runs from October 25 through December 31, 2026. Membership materials and any store purchases will arrive in January 2027.

Looking ahead

Would you like to come together in Philadelphia in 2027 to help shape a shared statement on affordability? That is where this is headed, and members will be the ones who draft it.

01

Who you are

02

How to reach you

03

What you would bring

04

A story on affordability

Do you have a story about affordability you would like to share?
05

An invitation to take part

Would you like to invite the Committee to a conference, panel or meeting?

Everything you share here stays with the Committee, and it is what lets the Committee reach you with the survey and what comes next.

The News Room

One theme each month.

The News Room carries one theme each month as the commemoration builds toward 2027, with that month’s stories gathered beneath it. Everything posted here stays in the record, newest first.

November

2026

The month’s theme

Commemorate & Honor our Veterans

This month’s News Room entry gathers the national observances that honor veterans and their families.

Special Recognition of Veterans

With gratitude to the veterans among us and to the families who served alongside them — for your service, your sacrifice, and the strength you carry into every room you enter.

A collage honoring veterans: a U.S. Army Veteran emblem, a smiling woman wearing a VETERAN shirt, a young service member in uniform, a Veterans Day flag graphic, and a U.S. Army Veteran logo.

Part 2: Lisa Cooksey-Cannon

A promotional graphic for the book Victorious: A Journey of Hope and Perseverance by Lisa Cooksey-Cannon — a quote across the top, her portrait, a short biography, and the book cover.
Lisa Cooksey-Cannon, U.S. Army veteran and author of Victorious: A Journey of Hope and Perseverance.
  1. 01November 6 to 14, 2026

    America’s Heroes Veterans Week

    ESPN’s annual multi-platform television, digital and radio programming tribute honoring active-duty military and veterans.

  2. 02November 11, 2026

    National Veterans Day Observance

    The federal holiday observing military veterans, centered around the theme “Veterans Helping Veterans and Their Families”.

  3. 03November 9 to 13, 2026

    National Veterans Small Business Week

    Hosted annually by the U.S. Small Business Administration, featuring daily themes focused on manufacturing, supply chains, capital access and training.

  4. 04Next event November 7, 2027

    National Veterans Parade

    Held annually in Washington, D.C., with the next event scheduled for November 7, 2027.

  5. 05March 1 to 7

    National Invest in Veterans Week

    An annual spring observance focused on veteran entrepreneurship, mentorship and mental health support.

  6. 06The week of February 14

    National Salute to Veteran Patients

    A Department of Veterans Affairs initiative honoring veterans in VA medical centers and clinics.

These observances are listed for information only. The Committee to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the 1997 Million Woman March is not affiliated with any of these organizations or events.

Send the Committee their name

Write to the Committee at info@millionwomanmarch30.com, or call (610) 600-1753, and tell the Committee who you would like remembered.

October

2026

The month’s theme

Launch

October is where this record begins: the month the 30th Anniversary Membership Drive went live.

The drive launched on October 25, 2026, on Hit USA Radio, with hosts Radical Allen & Michael Wright.

C.R. (Ceci) Toliver, President & CEO of Lacquered Images, joined from Las Vegas.

The station covered the launch in its own business blog on November 9, 2026 — kept here as the press record of the day.

Three people in front of the Hit USA Radio backdrop at the Las Vegas launch.
Two women at the microphones beneath the Hit USA Radio banner at the Las Vegas launch.
Photographs from the Las Vegas launch on Hit USA Radio, October 2026.
C.R. (Ceci) Toliver, President & CEO of Lacquered Images

C.R. (Ceci) Toliver

President & CEO of Lacquered Images

Join the Coalition

1997 → 2027

Looking back

Thirty years ago, in October 1997, the Million Woman March brought women and their families to Philadelphia. This is a commemoration of that day and of the three decades since, kept as a record for all who want to understand it. Not a call to action. A remembering.

Million Woman March 1997, by McIntosh & Shobey Associates

Chicago Delegation to the Million Woman March, Philadelphia, 1997. Produced by McIntosh & Shobey Associates.

Watch it on YouTube

More from the archive

Being gathered

Photographs, clippings and other material from the last thirty years will be gathered here.

  • 01

    Photographs

    Images from the day itself and from the years since.

    To be added

  • 02

    Clippings

    Coverage and commentary gathered over three decades.

    To be added

  • 03

    Programs & print

    Printed material that marked the anniversary years.

    To be added

Have material from the last thirty years that belongs in this record? Write to the Committee at info@millionwomanmarch30.com.

Open the full record

The work

Help survey affordability from the ground up.

Members gather boots-on-the-ground evidence of how economic apartheid shapes residents’ rights, access, and privileges — the research that lets independent businesses, agencies, organizations, jurisdictions, individuals, and institutions make better-informed decisions of their own.

A standing coalition of those independent entities is the long-term goal the Committee is building toward. Right now, what it needs is members.

Join the Coalition
Businesses
Agencies
Organizations
Jurisdictions
Individuals
Institutions

Who the Committee would like to hear from

There is a place for you in this work, whatever you bring to it.

As the Committee takes the survey into its first cities, it is reaching out to people and organizations of every kind. Every one of them is welcome, and every one of them has something the record needs.

Intergenerational & multicultural organizations

Groups that bring generations and cultures together. The conversation here is stronger when more than one generation and more than one tradition is in the room — and there is a place for yours.

Schools & universities

Students, faculty, and researchers who can document what their own neighborhoods are living through and put it on the record.

Community-based organizations

Neighborhood groups, faith communities, mutual-aid networks, and local nonprofits already doing the work on the ground.

Individuals

Residents and neighbors. Your lived experience is the heart of the survey — you do not need to represent anyone but yourself.

Ready to take part? Add your name as a member — as an individual, or on behalf of your organization, school, or group.

Join the Coalition

Where members are

Members are already on the map.

Every dot is a place where someone has joined — a household, a business, an organization, or a jurisdiction that put its name behind the survey. Toledo, Mesquite, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago started the map, and the count grows as new members join.

Shop & membership

Where the work is starting

Outreach is beginning in five cities: Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Mesquite, and Toledo. This is where the work starts, and it grows from here. If you are in one of these cities, or anywhere else, there is a place for you.

  • Chicago
  • Baltimore
  • Philadelphia
  • Mesquite
  • Toledo

6 member locations

Tap a dot

◆ Toledo, OH

Toledo, OHMesquite, TXPhiladelphia, PABaltimore, MDChicago, ILLas Vegas, NV

Members have joined in Toledo, OH.

As new members join, their city is added to this map.

Carry the message

250 Years: Let’s Talk About It! — on a cap, a mug, a tote, and a tee.

Commemorative items and membership dues, gathered in one place.

See all items in the shop