March for Our Lives: Eleven-year-old stuns crowd with speech honouring black girls - Independent

24/3/2018
March for Our Lives: Eleven-year-old stuns crowd with speech honouring black girls
'My friends and I might still be 11, and we might still be in elementary school but we know,' she says. 'We know life isn’t equal for everyone and we know what is right and wrong'

Alexandra Wilts Washington DC

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Eleven-year-old Naomi Wadler stunned many with her March for Our Lives speech honouring black girls whose stories don’t make the news, with some calling her their president and “our future”.

The fifth grader from Alexandria, Virginia was chosen to speak at the main event in Washington after she organised a walkout at her elementary school to protest gun violence and honour the 17 lives lost during a shooting last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

“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,” Ms Wadler said. “I represent the African-American women who are victims of gun violence, who are simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls full of potential.”

Why March For Our Lives is US's best ever chance of changing gun laws
She and her friends may be 11, she said, but “we know life isn’t equal for everyone and we know what is right and wrong.”

“We also know that we stand in the shadow of the Capitol, and we know that we have seven short years until we too have the right to vote,” Ms Wadler added.

The fifth grader has made waves on Twitter.

Now This News wrote that “this brilliant 11-year-old girl is doing more to address gun violence and systemic racism than most adults.”

“Wow wow Naomi Wadler,” another person wrote. “She is ELEVEN YEARS OLD. And smarter than us all. #marchforourlives”.

The more than three-hour event in front of Capitol Hill was led by students of Stoneman Douglas.

They, along with several other young speakers affected by gun violence, called on members of Congress to pass tighter gun control laws.

Unless legislators acted, they would be voted out of office, the students said.

NowThis
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@nowthisnews
This brilliant 11-year-old girl is doing more to address gun violence and systemic racism than most adults

12:43 PM - Mar 22, 2018

Jessica Valenti
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@JessicaValenti
Wow wow Naomi Wadler. She is ELEVEN YEARS OLD. And smarter than us all. #marchforourlives

4:16 AM - Mar 25, 2018


Michael Eric Dyson
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@MichaelEDyson
Young Ms. Naomi Wadler just rocked my world and thrilled the nation. Her eloquence and intelligence, her exquisite poise and dignity, and her insistence that little black girls not be left behind, was a searing call to justice for those who are often forgotten! A star is born!

4:20 AM - Mar 25, 2018

Emma Cummings, 24, and Katie Whittum, 23, said it was impressive that all of the speakers were young, were from different places across the US and had such different experiences.

“I thought that made the impact greater,” Ms Cummings told The Independent.