An 11-year-old girl honored young African-American girls who were victims of gun violence and wow'ed the crowd during her speech on Saturday at the March For Our Lives Rally in Washington D.C.
Naomi Wadler, who is from Alexandria, Virginia, was one of the speakers at the March For Our Lives Rally, where students from across the U.S. came to protest alongside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students from Parkland, Florida in an effort to protest gun violence in schools.
"I am here today to acknowledge and represent the African-American girls whose stories don't make the front page of every national newspaper," Wadler said.
11-year old Naomi Wadler: "I am here to acknowledge and represent the African-American girls whose stories don't make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don't lead on the evening news." #MarchForOurLives (via CBS) pic.twitter.com/o6UkEuxemd
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 24, 2018
Wadler, a fifth-grader said she was one of the student organizers who led her fellow classmates in a walkout on March 14 for 17 minutes. She said the students added an extra minute to remember and honor Courtlin Arrington, an African American girl who was shot and killed a day after 17 people died in Parkland, Florida on March 14.
Over shouts of the crowd, she said she is representing the African-American women who have become victims of gun violence.
"I represent the African-American women who are victims of gun violence, who are simply statistics instead of vibrant beautiful girls full of potential."
Wadler told WUSA9 earlier this month why she and the rest of the students at Alexandria's George Mason Elementary School and other participating schools were getting involved in the walkout.
"I think it's completely unacceptable that we are not exercising our rights to be safe at school," she said.
Some staff members from the local schools said they did not feel comfortable with the walkout because they did not believe it was safe for students to be on the front lawn, AlexandriaNews.org reported. Wadler challenged that idea, wondering if she and her fellow classmates were safe inside their schools.
"How we be will be safe in our own classrooms in the world we live in now," she asked, "when it's OK for someone to walk into a store with an expired ID and buy an assault rifle?"
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Maria Perez is a breaking news reporter for Newsweek. She has an M.A in Urban Reporting from the CUNY Graduate School ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
