Spring showers didn’t silence their voices. In fact, their candles lit up the streets of Eugene Thursday night.
The 22nd Annual Take Back the Night March beginning in the EMU Amphitheater was an opportunity for approximately 500 students and community members to join together in the fight against oppression and violence facing women. The event was organized by volunteers from Sexual Assault Support Services and the ASUO Women’s Center and planned in coordination with Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
“The whole idea of the march [was] to give women and men a chance to make their voices heard and to take a stand against violence against women,” ASUO Women’s Center event coordinator Jennie Breslow said.
In the United States, the first march began in San Francisco in 1978 when more than 5,000 women were given an evening to take to the streets and feel safe. That same year, the tradition began in Eugene.
“In marching, we are saying to offenders that violence against women will not be tolerated, we are making our voices heard,” Sexual Assault Support Services community educator Elizabeth McCravy said. “We have the right to live in a community free of fear and violence, and we will hold offenders responsible for their actions.”
DJ Cera kicked off the evening at 7 p.m. spinning records. Cera, a feminist, is well known for her instrumental talent and was previously featured in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Alliance pride month.
The music was accompanied by sign making, related information booths and “The Survivors’ Clothesline Project.” The art display of T-shirts were created by survivors of sexual violence to express their experience of abuse and celebrate their healing.
“We wanted to energize the crowd this year and get them pumped up to go on the march,” Breslow said.
This year’s featured speakers included Hillel Director of Student Activities Jeff Klein, Youth for Justice member Sifra Morrison, Oregon Commission for the Blind instructor Mary Lee Turner, traditional midwife Clarebeth Loprinzi, sociology graduate student Sergio Romero and ASUO Campus Organizer Alisa Simmons.
“I hope people question their defined gender roles by society and how their defined roles affect all power relations,” Simmons said. “I hope that specifically women or people who are disempowered take back the night every night.”
Simmons rallied the crowd before the march, saying, “We don’t need to feel safe; we need to be safe!”
The participants marched through the streets of downtown Eugene freely expressing themselves and carrying signs bearing messages such as: “Women Unite, Take Back the Night” and “You Go Girl!”
The role that men played in the march was controversial.
“We had to define how we could get men involved but still preserve the mission of how the march began,” Breslow said.
She added that because there were men who wanted to visibly show their support for women in the march, the compromise was that men would march behind the women.
The men carried a banner that read: “Men Support Take Back the Night, Violence Against Women Affects Everyone.”
Noah Zanville, a senior philosophy major and member of Men Against Sexism said he was present at the event to show his support for the “51 percent of the population who are under attack and certainly not honored the way they should be.”

Men Against Sexism facilitated several discussions for men as part of the Take Back the Night program to discuss how men are involved in violence against women and how they can prevent this violence.
Men Against Sexism is a group formed out of last year’s Take Back the Night men’s workshop. The group seeks to provide a supportive environment for men, to promote dialogue within the community about sexism and to advocate for an end to all forms of oppression.
The 45-minute march ended at Eighth Avenue and Oak Street with a speak-out by victims of sexual assault.
Breslow said this aspect of the night was important for survivors so they could come out and show their community that this is an issue that is important to them.
Drumming by Womyn at Play and a performance by the Young Women’s Theater Collective also concluded the march.
Take Back the Night is the largest social action movement on campus.