SC native Viola Davis speaks for more than herself at one of the women’s march events

Across the country Saturday, Americans gathered for women’s marches.

There were many speakers at the varied events, including activists, politicians, celebrities and ordinary people, among others.

Among those who addressed the masses was South Carolina native and award-winning actor Viola Davis.

Davis, born on her grandmother’s farm in St. Matthews, opened her nearly 10-minute speech to a large crowd in Los Angeles discussing Jim Crow laws. She talked about how those laws were put into place to restrict blacks, Hispanics and American Indians, among other minority groups.

And those laws were effective because there wasn’t enough resistance to them.

“The reason why these Jim Crow laws were in place is because we fell asleep,” Davis said, invoking Martin Luther King Jr. in saying that you can’t be complacent and wait for things to change. “It is through human dedication and effort that we move forward.”

Davis acknowledged this type of effort is difficult. It was in the day of MLK and remains a challenge today.

“At the end of the day, we only move forward when it doesn’t cost us anything,” Davis said. “I’m here today saying no one and nothing can be great unless it costs you something.”

That was when she transitioned to focus on the women’s march. She used statistics to illustrate how many women are in harm’s way, and how so many of them are unable to break free.

Davis said:

▪  One of five women will be sexually assaulted or raped before she reaches the age of 18.

▪  Women of color, if they’re raped or sexually assaulted before the age of 18, are 66 percent more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted again.

▪  Seventy percent of girls who are sexually trafficked are girls of color.

“I am speaking today not just for the #metoos, because I was a #metoo,” Davis said. “But when I raise my hand, I am aware of all the women who are still in silence. The women who are faceless. The women who don’t have the money, don’t have the constitution, and don’t have have the confidence and don’t have the images in our media that give them the sense of self worth enough to break their silence that’s rooted in the shame of assault. The stigma of assault.”

Again Davis hit home on the idea that no progress is possible without some growing pains, at the least. And that if we are truly Americans, you don’t stand solely for yourself but for all Americans.

Then she personalized her speech.

“I am always introduced as an award-winning actor. But my testimony is one of poverty, my testimony is one of being sexually assaulted and very much seeing a childhood that was robbed from me,” Davis said. “When I think of that, I know that the trauma of those events are still with me today and that’s what drives me into the voting booth, that’s what allows me to listen to the women still in silence. It allows me even to become a citizen on this planet.

“We are here to connect, we are here as 324 million people living on this Earth, that we breathe and we live and that we have got to bring up everyone with us.”

Davis concluded by saying the event on Saturday wasn’t a culmination, but just the next step forward in the struggle.

“My hope for the future, and I do hope, that we never go back. That it’s not just about clapping your hands, screaming and shouting once someone says something that sounds good. It’s about keeping it rolling once you go home.”

Davis’ parents moved to Rhode Island when she was about 2 months old. She has won a wide range of prestigious awards for her acting, including the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress last year for her role in “Fences.”

She has won a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. For her work in theater, she has won two Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards. For her work in film, she has won an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Additionally, she is a three-time Academy Award nominee, making her the most nominated black actress in history.

This story was originally published January 21, 2018 at 3:47 PM with the headline "SC native Viola Davis speaks for more than herself at one of the women’s march events."