More than 80 women found a “safe space” on Sunday morning to speak about the obstacles and opportunities that exist for women organizers.
At 9 a.m., Hand Up United hosted the “Women Caucus: Fighting on the Frontline” breakfast roundtable at an office space on West Florissant Avenue. While the room would have comfortably fit about 30 people, the diverse group of attendees spilled out into the hallway. Both in the room and hallway, many women were sitting on the floor.
A few women were Spanish-speaking farm workers from Florida, who have led a battle for better working conditions.
The St. Louis American asked three women if they would share their stories, which hostesses requested not be recorded or videotaped during the discussion.
Mildred Cline said she’s lived in Ferguson for 27 years and has always been afraid of the police.
“So many of us were silent for too long and didn’t say anything,” Cline said. “Then we said, ‘No more.’”
Cline said she feels disconnected to her community. When she sees the signs, “I love Ferguson,” she said she doesn’t feel that way.
Local resident Beverly Jones spoke about the need to “take care of ourselves,” so they can continue to take care of others in the movement. Jones said she has five daughters, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
“We have been out here every day, feeding people and taking care of people,” she said.
She told the story of police throwing away the sleeping bags and coats of camped-out protestors.
“But we came back,” she said. “This is why we fight.”
The Ferguson October weekend has been amazing for her, she said, because she’s met people from around the country.
“There’s a group who came all the way from Hawaii,” she said. “Her friends and family raised money for them to get here.”
She said she was long overdue to be in a room with women experiencing similar struggles.
Dacia Polk, 25, said in March she was choked, tasered and pulled from her vehicle by three white Maplewood police officers in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Hanley Road. They never told her why she was being arrested before throwing her in jail.
She and her finance are licensed gun carriers who have chosen to open carry their weapons. She said they frequently go into stores with their legal firearms in view and never had a problem.
“I’ve even had conversations with police who said, ‘If I were you, I would carry a gun too,’” she said.
Her fiancé had gone into the store and someone called the police after seeing his gun. She did not have her weapon that day. The caller described his car to police and said he was with a woman. Three police officers approached her car and yelled at her, “Get out of the car.” She said she calmly asked why, and the next thing she knew she was being choked and tasered in her seat with the seat belt on.
When she went to court, the judge found her guilty of interfering with arrest.
“The officers accused me of kicking and fighting,” she said. “I just watched them sit there and lie. But the whole judicial system is corrupt. The police are just the bullies.”
Polk said the women’s caucus was important to create a network of women because, “men are not the only ones getting beat up.”
The caucus discussion was part of the Weekend of Resistance from Oct. 10 to 13, meant to build momentum for a nationwide movement against police violence and demand justice for Michael Brown, an unarmed teen shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9.
“Mike Brown is now part of a long list of people like John Crawford, Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant and countless others who have been unjustly killed by police,” according to the official website FergusonOctober.com. “Their lives mattered.”
Follow this reporter on Twitter @rebeccarivas.
