At the GWCDP Breakfast Meeting on Saturday, Aug 4, the main guest speaker was Evvie Harmon, a lifelong resident of South Carolina with an impressive resume of activism in a traditionally conservative state.
Evvie was one of the original co-founders of the national Women’s March in 2017. How did a young woman from Greenville, SC end up getting involved in one of the largest organized global movements in history?
“I acted,” she answered. “Instead of just saying ‘Oh, that’s cool,’ say ‘What can I do?'”
She started by created a Facebook page for the South Carolina Women’s March event, which turned out to be the first such page in the nation. Soon, she found herself tapped to be the Global Coordinator for Sister Marches around the world.
Read “Meet the Women Who Are Making the Women’s March on Washington Happen“.
Evvie has since moved on from Women’s March and has put her energy into March On – a new nation-wide grass-roots movement. According to the “We Are March On” Facebook page:
March On is galvanizing the millions who marched into a political movement that will mobilize around an election-focused agenda. Women-led, but open to all, March On will employ a sophisticated political strategy to coordinate concrete actions at the federal, state, and local level through the joint efforts of millions of marchers.
March On will formally launch on Sept 1 and will be offering specific information packets and tools for South Carolina activists.
Finally, Evvie spoke about the Postcard Party campaign for James Smith for Governor (which we wrote about earlier). Targeting 97,000 women voters in SC, she has coordinated the volunteers in every corner of the state to send out simple, handwritten messages to encourage votes for James Smith. “Women are going to get James Smith elected,” she said, and pointed to the over 10,000 members of the “Women for James Smith” Facebook group. In the first 22 days of this postcard writing campaign, over 35,000 names and addresses have already been distributed.
“Flooding the streets is great, but it doesn’t change the law. What changes the law are electing lawmakers!” Evvie concluded.
