History
Started with two women: Brenda Jenkins and Celia Blue
Brenda Jenkins – was inspired by her efforts in support of Florcy Romero and Cheyenne Jones,
two college students of color and campus organizers in the movement for Black lives. With the help
of Brenda, Florcy and Cheyenne founded Women of Color in Solidarity- a network which connected
female students of color across several local colleges and universities with seasoned women
leaders/organizers of color to “dialogue about the responsibility that we uphold to advocate and
protest for the rights of each other and our men of color.” From that powerful experience, Brenda
developed a vision for bringing together an even larger intergenerational network of WOC in
Worcester to learn about what was happening in our city and to get us more connected, engaged
and invested. As such, Brenda formally invited WOC to a networking breakfast in April 2015.
Celia Blue – inspired and empowered by her work as President of the North Central
Massachusetts Minority Coalition, President of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials,
Boston and with her efforts in working with Mary Fernandes, Mukiya Baker Gomez and other leaders
of color in the Boston area to make state government more inclusive, Celia realized there needed to
be a specific focus on WOC. She has a global vision of organizing WOC, starting with a statewide
effort in the commonwealth first. As such, outreach begun in 3 of the largest cities; Worcester,
Springfield and Boston that geographically spanned the commonwealth. The plan was to initially
invite a small group of WOC who were liked minded on WOC inequity issues agreeing on the top 3-
5 areas that would have a significant impact, creating a movement and becoming one voice to
change the status quo.
Worcester WOC – The networking breakfast also sparked the conversation with sisters whom
Brenda had a long history of organizing with – Maritza Cruz, Joyce McNickles, Marie Boone and
Marianna Islam who saw the idea of a state-wide effort as an opportunity to build upon their
collective work as racial justice organizers to grow an even deeper dialogue/movement – strictly
focused on WOC. These WOC along with several other leaders of color in Worcester had just
completed a report with specific recommendations to the city manager and mayor to make
Worcester more inclusive. Encouraged and empowered by the reception of their report and work
among other sisters across the state- outreach was made to trusted and experienced WOC
organizers in the Boston and Springfield areas.
Since May 2015 the WOC has been meeting, we created our name, “Massachusetts Women of
Color Coalition” (MAWOCC), vision, mission statements were developed, a statement of who we are
and areas/platforms we would focus on. Our founding members are: Brenda Jenkins, Maritza Cruz,
Marie Boone, Joyce McNickles, Marianna Islam, Waleska Lugo-DeJesus, Alysia Cutting Cosby,
Denise Jordan, Mukiya Baker Gomez, Diane Wilkerson, Mary Fernandes, Chioma Nnaji and Celia
Blue.
