Denise McClellan, second from right, in a Women in Black Asheville vigil. McClellan was among those
in the group arrested for trespassing in 2003 amidst protests of the Iraqi war.

Standing for Something

Women in Black work quietly for an end to violence

By Jillian Swords
LiveWire

It is Friday, Jan. 13 and a lone, black-clad figure braces itself against the harsh Boone wind. She clutches a laminated sign that simply reads, “Women in Black” as she struggles to stay upright on the steps of the Jones House Community Center.

Her solemn, hopeful gaze overlooks Boone’s King Street. No one has stopped to ask her business yet, but there is still time left in her one-hour vigil.

And if no one stops this week, not only is there next week, and the week after that, but

Marjorie McKinney knows she stands in a much more receptive environment than the women who first undertook the cause.

No one hurls sexual slurs at her. No one mutters obscenities or threats of violence as they make their ways past.

For the Women in Black and its peace vigils are not unique to the Town of Boone. They are products of a worldwide network begun in 1988 in a place hardly synonymous with the word “peace.”

According to the Women In Black’s international Web site, twenty years after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian intifada, or violent rebellion, began. Shortly thereafter, so did the weekly public vigils Israeli Jewish women began in response.

Their silence came from a determination to not respond to the abuses thrown at them from many sides as they gathered.

The idea spread like wildfire. “Solidarity” vigils were organized throughout Israel. Some were primarily Jewish, while others were both Jewish and Palestinian. Regardless, they all stood for the same thing: peace.

Around 1990, the vigils took off with a life of their own, forming in many countries for reasons unrelated to the Israeli occupation and unique to their areas.

In Italy, the Women in Black stand against a range of issues, from the Israeli occupation to Mafia violence.

In Germany, vigils form against neo-Nazism, racism against migrants, and nuclear arms. In India, Women in Black vigil to call for an end to the way women are treated by religious fundamentalists.

Why only women?

“We had it happen several times that men wanted to join,” Sally S. Atkins, one of the founders of Boone’s Women in Black chapter, remembered. “There were very mixed feelings among the group; some thought it should be just women, but the point is not to make it ‘us and them.’ It should embrace everyone.”

McKinney said the Boone group has never discouraged men from joining. The more people concerned and aware, the better, she said.

However, women often have unique perspectives to offer on issues of peace because they are often the ones who suffer the worst brunt of things if there is not peace, McKinney explained.

“Our concerns are just different than those of a lot of men,” McKinney said. “I think there’s a greater sensitivity there to what violence does to a community and to individual women and children.”

The black attire serves to both impress the somberness of the occasion and make the group stand out, Atkins said.

Atkins started the Boone chapter in 2001 when the United States invaded Afghanistan. 

“What I like about it is that it’s not an anti-war protest. It’s a protest for peace,” Atkins said. “It’s not ranting and railing about anything; it’s meditating…for peace in the world.”

The world, indeed—Atkins teaches at a college in Switzerland in the summers and has garnered community support in vigils there in the past. She also taught a class at the Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains one year and helped gain the participation of the entire 1,200-person center in a vigil. 

Chapters of the Women in Black network branch across other areas of western North Carolina too.

In Asheville, the group meets at the Vance Monument in the center of town.

Denise M. McClellan had attended the group’s weekly vigils for a year and a half when she and nine others were arrested in 2003.

It was March 28, the week the United States had invaded Iraq, and the streets of Asheville were teeming with protestors. In an attempt to keep the streets clear and protestors under control, police had cordoned off the public monument where the Women in Black always held its vigils.

Determined to meet anyway, the group resolutely gathered amidst the numerous other protests going on around it.

The women grasped their banner that read, “Women in Black: Silent Vigil Mourning Violence,” as police warned them they would be arrested for trespassing and marching without a permit if they did not leave. Minutes later, 10 Women in Black chose to stay and be led away in handcuffs.

“We had been meeting there for a year and a half, and for them to say we couldn’t all of a sudden was absurd,” McClellan said. “I [chose to stay and be arrested] because it was a free speech issue…If we had let them get away with that, it would have set a precedent for the future.”

As each black-clad woman has her own unique experiences and viewpoints, reasons for vigil attendance in general vary from woman to woman, and even from vigil to vigil, McClellan said.

“All have their particular reasons. Some stand for a particular war. Some stand for domestic violence. Some stand for issues going on in different countries,” she said.

The Asheville women were fined $200 each and their permanent records are stamped with their trespassing violations for peacefully gathering on that March day.

No run-ins with the law have occurred with the Boone group as of yet. The Women in Black simply had to get a permit to gather at the Jones House.

Jenny Schrum is the community center’s office manager. She deals with a number of requests from the public, who will mention seeing the group while passing by in the past and be utterly perplexed by their presence.

“We get a lot of people wandering by, or from out of town, asking me, ‘Are they witches? They’re wearing all black,’” she said. “It’s usually only one or two [women in the vigil], but I’ve been working here five years and I can hardly remember them missing a vigil yet.”

Although flu strains and family emergencies can sometimes keep the Boone vigils from being held weekly, there is usually at least one woman on the steps. Atkins is unable to continue the weekly vigils because of her health, but McKinney is usually in attendance, sometimes with one other person.

The group welcomes women from all backgrounds, ethnicities and stories with open arms, as diversity and acceptance are one of the network’s building blocks. Because Boone is not a particularly diverse area, however, it ends us that“our group is usually strictly WASP [White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant],” McKinney said.

Boone’s chapter has steadily dwindled in membership in the last several years, McKinney said.

Perhaps as the war in Iraq stretched on, fervor against it died down somewhat, she speculated.

People who stop to inquire about the vigils are usually from the middle-aged or older set, and, interestingly, are usually men.

“This is not unexpected though,” McKinney said. “In public, men are usually less self conscious.”

The group tries to advertise in local papers and hold the occasional community interest meeting, “but with only one or two of us doing it, it’s so hard to organize when we have our own list of things to do too,” McKinney said.

Although the vigils are silent, the women give out leaflets explaining for what their group stands, often conversing with the curious passers-by, who provide a medley of reactions.

“Mostly people are very touched,” Atkins said. “Sometimes people would join with us, sometimes they’d burst into tears, sometimes they’d thank us, sometimes they’d get angry and swear at us as they were driving by.”

“The majority [of passers-by] were positive. The ones that were not were very much connected to fear,” she added thoughtfully.

Either way, their presence makes people think, both McKinney and Atkins explained.

“It was really a powerful experience every time, hard to put into words,” Atkins said. “We stood in all kinds of weather—one time one of the women fainted from the heat…It is interesting how this ritual has spread across countries and time. There’s obviously something to what we’re standing for.”

The Women in Black is scheduled to meet as usual on the Jones House steps from 1 to 2 p.m. this Friday. The vigils are open for public participation and spectatorship.