Naomi Wadler, 11, Captures Nation’s Heart With Powerful Speech About Violence Against Black Women

Naomi Wadler took the stage at a March For Our Lives events Saturday bringing attention to female African American victims of gun violence.

“I am here today to acknowledge and represent the African-American girls whose stories don’t make the front page of every national newspaper. These stories don’t lead on the evening news,” Wadler said at the Washington D.C. March for Our Lives rally.

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

Wadler, 11, also helped organize a walkout at her school, George Mason Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. where she honored the 17 victims who died in the Parkland, Fla. school shooting and Courtlin Arrington, an African American teenager who was shot and killed in her Alabama high school after the Parkland shooting, by walking out for 18 minutes.

“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. I’m here to say that everyone should value those girls too,” Wadler said in her speech.

“People have said that I am too young to have these thoughts on my own. People have said that I am a tool of some nameless adult. It’s not true.”