By Aya Elamroussi, Special to the AFRO

Huge crowds poured into the streets of Washington D.C. on Mar. 24 for the March for Our Lives – an event devoted to pushing for gun control and ending gun violence. The rally was organized by survivors of the Valentine’s Day mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 students dead.

When 11-year-old Noami Wadler of Alexandria, Va. took the stage at the rally, she urged the nation not to forget Black women who fall victim to gun violence and receive far less attention. “I am here today 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,” said Wadler, who is Black.

Children and their parents were out in force at the rally. (Photo by Aya Elamroussi)

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

As the crowd roared Wadler added, “For far too long, these names, these Black girls and women, have been just numbers. I’m here to say, ‘Never again’ for those girls too.”

The fifth-grader’s eloquence shed light on a conversation that usually doesn’t garner adequate attention from national news media: Black voices and gun violence. A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last summer shows that Black women were more likely to be killed. The study also found that Black women were the most likely of any racial group to be shot to death.

Parkland shooting survivor, and now activist, David Hogg said he is critical of the lack of minority representation in media coverage. In an interview with Axios, Hogg, who is White, was asked what the biggest mistake the media made in covering the Parkland shooting. “Not giving Black students a voice,” he said. “My school is about 25 percent Black, but the way we’re covered doesn’t reflect that.”

Laura Boyd, a native of Southeast D.C., told the AFRO that Black people are represented as the ones who are being violent. “I feel like people don’t expect Black people to step forward because we are known as being the ones are being violent,” Boyd said.

Boyd, 20, said she marched because the issue of gun control has touched everyone around the world regardless of race, color or religion. Kensley Casey, also 20, of Prince George’s County marched because “it’s the right time right now,” she told the AFRO. “It’s unfortunate that we have to march just because somebody dies,” Casey said. “We shouldn’t have to tell people that guns should not be in schools. People should already know this.”

Boyd also said that gun violence isn’t just in schools. “There’s gun violence everywhere,” Boyd said, “in neighborhoods, in houses, on the street.”

Boyd brought her two younger cousins with her to the march – Areiona Johnson and Layla Aughtry. Johnson, 10, said she marched because the world needs to be protected. “Donald Trump is making the world feel really unsafe . . .” Johnson told the AFRO. “I need to be here to protect the world, my family and my school.”

Johnson is in the fifth grade and attends KIPP DC.

Aughtry said people don’t want to see their kids killed. “They just come to school to learn. They don’t want to come to school and get shot up,” Aughtry said.

Aughtry, 8, said she also participated in her school’s peace rally on Mar. 23, which protested gun violence. Aughtry attends KIPP DC Quest Academy.

Casey added that the Black Lives Matter movement has helped raise Black voices in the gun control debate, but it’s still not enough. “They listen eventually.”