Vanessa Wruble | |
|---|---|
 Vanessa Wruble at 2017 Women's March on Washington. | |
| Born | August 27, 1974 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Education | Sidwell Friends School |
| Alma mater | |
| Years active | 2008–present |
| Known for | Co-founder Women's March on Washington Co-founder March On |
Vanessa Wruble (born August 27, 1974) is an American entrepreneur, journalist, and activist. In 2017, Wruble co-founded and served as Head of Campaign Operations of the 2017 Women's March and founded March On where she is executive director.
Wruble grew up in Washington, D.C, the daughter of Bernhardt K. Wruble, a prominent lawyer appointed by President Jimmy Carter as the first director of the Office of Government Ethics. [1] She graduated from Sidwell Friends High School, a Quaker school. [2] [3] She earned a BA (cum laude) from Williams College, studying women’s issues, psychology, and fiction writing, [4] and Master's degrees in social research in psychology from The New School and in interactive media from NYU. [5]
With the launch of Al Gore's Current TV, Wruble served as the company's first international correspondent. [6] She also worked as a journalist for print magazines and as a communication specialist for the United Nations. [7]
In 2011, together with The Roots frontman Questlove, Wruble founded OkayAfrica, a digital media platform dedicated to African culture, music and politics. [8] [9] She helped the company become the largest US-based website focusing on new and progressive music, art, politics, and culture from the African continent. [10] She ran the company for seven years until she stepped down to organize the 2017 Women's March. [11]
Wruble co-founded the Women's March on Washington, and served as head of campaign operations. [12] In an effort to bring diversity to the march's leadership, she brought on three of its four national co-chairs, Carmen Perez, Linda Sarsour, and Tamika Mallory, to serve alongside Bob Bland. [13] [14]
The march was originally called the "Millions Women's March". Wruble renamed it "The Women's March on Washington" to avoid overwriting the history of the 1997 Millions Women's March in Philadelphia. [15]
Eventually Wruble, who is Jewish, left the Women's March Movement, citing antisemitic comments by Mallory and Perez and antisemitic sentiment in the movement generally. [16]
In October 2017, Wruble led the leaders of the decentralized nationwide Women's Marches to form a new organization, March On. [17] In addition, they launched a Super PAC called March On's Fight Back PAC. [18] March On takes a bottom-up approach to coordinate actions at the federal, state, and local level, by joining together the various women's groups around the nation to work together. [19] March On announced the goal of creating political change through its "March On the Polls" campaign, including marching people to voting booths for the November 2018 midterms (a "March On the Midterms"). [20] On January 20, 2018, March On launched a nationwide poll to help design the liberal activist agenda for the 2018 midterms and beyond. [21]
Sally Rebecca Kohn is an American liberal political commentator, community organizer, and founder and chief executive officer of the Movement Vision Lab, a grassroots think tank that focuses on liberal and progressive ideas and positions. Kohn was a contributor for Fox News, and now regularly appears as a political commentator on CNN. Her writing is published in publications like The Washington Post and USA Today.
Eli Erlick is an American activist, writer, academic, and founder of the organization Trans Student Educational Resources.
Linda Sarsour is an American political activist. She was co-chair of the 2017 Women's March, the 2017 Day Without a Woman, and the 2019 Women's March. She is also a former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. She and her Women's March co-chairs were profiled in Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" in 2017.
The Women's March was a worldwide protest on January 21, 2017, the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president. It was prompted by Trump's policy positions and rhetoric, which protesters called misogynistic or otherwise threatening to the rights of women. It was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. The goal of the annual marches is to advocate legislation and policies regarding human rights and other issues, including women's rights, immigration reform, healthcare reform, disability justice, reproductive rights, the environment, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, freedom of religion, workers' rights and tolerance. According to organizers, the goal was to "send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights".
Mari Lynn Foulger, better known as Bob Bland, is an American fashion designer and activist. Bland co-chaired the 2017 Women's March but later resigned from the 2019 Women's March board following accusations of antisemitism and various internal controversies. She is the CEO of Manufacture New York, promoting ethical work practices and sustainable fashion.
Halima Aden is a Somali-American fashion model. She is noted for being the first woman to wear a hijab in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant, where she was a semi-finalist. Following her participation in the pageant, Halima received national attention and was signed to IMG Models. She was also the first model to wear a hijab and burkini in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
A Day Without a Woman was a strike action held on March 8, 2017, on International Women's Day. The strike, which was organized by two different groups—the 2017 Women's March and a separate International Women's Strike movement—asked that women not work that day to protest the policies of the administration of Donald Trump. Planning began before Trump's November 2016 election. The movement was adopted and promoted by the Women's March, and recommended actions inspired by the "Bodega Strike" and the Day Without Immigrants.
Tamika Danielle Mallory is an American activist. She was one of the leading organizers of the 2017 Women's March, for which she and her three other co-chairs were recognized in the TIME 100 that year. She received the Coretta Scott King Legacy Award from the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom in 2018. Mallory is a proponent of gun control, feminism, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
NextGen America is a progressive advocacy nonprofit and political action committee created in 2013 by billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer. The group mobilizes young voters on issues including climate, health care, reproductive freedom, immigration, and equality. Since its founding, the 501(c)(4) organization has registered 1.3 million voters, and contacted millions of young people with messages encouraging them to vote.
Leyna Bloom is an American actress, model, dancer, and activist. She has attracted press as a trailblazer for transgender women in the entertainment and fashion industries.
Eva Maria Lewis is a student protester, advocate, poet, and artist. From South Side, Chicago, she is a contributor to Teen Vogue, founder of The I Project, Youth for Black Lives, and an organizer of the July 11, 2016 youth march on Millennium Park to protest police brutality.
Carmen Beatrice Perez is an American activist and Chicana feminist who has worked on issues of civil rights including mass incarceration, women's rights and gender equity, violence prevention, racial healing and community policing. She is the President and CEO of The Gathering for Justice, a nonprofit founded by Harry Belafonte which is dedicated to ending child incarceration and eliminating the racial disparities in the criminal justice system. She was one of four national co-chairs of the 2017 Women's March.
The 2018 Women's March was a global protest that occurred on January 20, 2018, on the anniversary of the 2017 Women's March.
Naomi Wadler is an American student and activist against gun violence. She has made speeches advocating for victims of gun violence in the United States, especially black female victims, most notably at the pro-gun control protest March For Our Lives. She attends The Field School in Washington, DC.
Lucia Kay McBath is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from Georgia's 6th congressional district. The district, once represented by Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, includes many of Atlanta's affluent northern suburbs, such as Alpharetta, Roswell, Johns Creek, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, and parts of Tucker and Marietta. McBath is a member of the Democratic Party.
Women Disobey was a protest in Washington, D.C. on June 28, 2018. The protests against the Trump administration family separation policy were organized by Women's March. They took place in the streets around the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building and inside the Hart Senate Office Building. Following acts of mass civil disobedience, 575 people were arrested.
March On, stylized as March ON, is an American nonprofit organization of women-led and grassroots political activist groups that grew out of the women’s marches of January 21, 2017.
Future Coalition is an American nonprofit organization consisting of a national network of youth-led organizations and initiatives centered around creating social change.
The 2019 Women's March was a protest that occurred on January 19, 2019 in America. It follows the 2017 Women's March and 2018 Women's March.
This timeline of antisemitism chronicles the facts of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group, in the 21st century. It includes events in the history of antisemitic thought, actions taken to combat or relieve the effects of antisemitism, and events that affected the prevalence of antisemitism in later years. The history of antisemitism can be traced from ancient times to the present day.