“Marching is a tool.”-Why Ingrid Hill marches

Ingrid Hill, Vice Chair of the People’s Organization (P.O.P), standing amongst other members at a past P.O. rally. (Photo compliments of Lisa Davis, community activist with the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations.)

EAST ORANGE, NJ—Ingrid Hill grew up at a time of severe systemic injustice. It was the 1960s, and the world was turning upside down. 

As a teenager, she was part of a "collective," surrounded by community elders, family members, and friends who were all committed to each other and making a better world for all. Today, she remains committed to social transformation and understands the importance of showing up for her community and for change: "The message was always that what touches you touches everybody else so that you have a responsibility to help out in any way you can."

Formed in 1983, P.O.P. organizes rallies and takes to the streets, armed with placards, to make the voices of the forgotten heard. As stated on their website, P.O.P.'s primary goal is "nothing less than the complete elimination of poverty, all forms of social, racial, and economic exploitation; oppression, degradation, human misery, suffering, and injustice." And Hill, who serves as P.O.P.'s Vice-Chair, oversees the organization's administrative operations and represents P.O.P. on various committees addressing reparations, healthcare, policing, and more. 

 A resident of East Orange, Hill has been a member of P.O.P. for around 20 years. But long before she marched with P.O.P., she began marching as a young girl in the 1960s. And her first march, as she recalls it, was in junior high, when she went with fellow students and family members to join the Atlantic City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to protest desegregation in their city. Hill remembers it as an educational process, with the senior members of the NAACP teaching her to take responsibility and take action. 

At home, family members also shaped Hill's political and social education. One aunt "made sure everybody had an opportunity to learn," Hill said, and showed her the importance of being an educator. Another aunt talked to her about politics. Her cousin showed her how to engage people through curriculums "that were more reflective of the population." One way to reach people was to march, so Hill did.

"I mean across the country, you know, you had the Black Power movement; you had the Civil Rights movement. I mean, it was just a lot of movement," she said. "It was a good time to be a young person and to engage in it to become aware of what was going on."

Ingrid Hill, Vice Chair of the People’s Organization for Progress (P.O.P), cheering at their rally in support of Z’Kye Husain, March 5 2022.(Josie Gonsalves for Public Square Amplified)

For Hill, the movements never stopped because there are "issues that are currently infringing on people's lives," she said. Hill believes marching is still essential to show that "activism is still alive and well." She thinks it is now time to empty her cup, to educate others as others educated her. 

A past advisor to the Black Student Union at Seton Hall University and a volunteer for 20 years with juvenile offenders, Hill wants young people to see the importance of joining the movement. She wants every citizen to see how "what they're marching for impacts their lives," and she wants everyone to know the importance of being in it together and working for change. That's what she realized at a young age, and that's why she marches.

On April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Hill will join the 'Million People's March for Voting Rights, Equality and Democracy.' She said she hopes it will bring people together and create a "larger pool" of awareness. She specifically wants young people to know that the march is "a tool that they can use to articulate their concerns."

"This is just not for me today, but I'm working on behalf of the generations to come," she said. "I may not be able to realize what I'm fighting for today, but my hope is that we build a foundation that, ultimately, at some level, people will be able to benefit from."

The march is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on Monday, April 4, at the Lincoln Statue, 12 Springfield Avenue, Newark, NJ.  

A pre-march press conference will also take place at the Lincoln Statue at 4 p.m.