Actress Viola Davis, on the day when hundreds of thousands of women took to the streets across America, on Saturday sought to give voice to the silent and faceless victims of sexual assault.
“Every single day, your job as an American citizen is not just to fight for your rights, but it is to fight for the right of every individual that is taking a breath, whose heart is pumping and breathing on this earth,” she told the crowd in Los Angeles.
Her remarks came at a time when women across the country have come forward to accuse high-profile men of sexual misconduct in what’s become known as the “Me Too” Movement.
“I am speaking today not just for the ‘Me Toos, because I was a ‘Me Too,’ but when I raise my hand, I am aware of all the women who are still in silence,” she said in an emotional speech.
“The women who are faceless. The women who don’t have the money and don’t have the constitution and who don’t have the confidence and who don’t have the images in our media that gives them a sense of self-worth enough to break their silence that is rooted in the shame of assault and rooted in the stigma of assault.”