Standing Firm in Power and Pride:

This year’s Black History Month theme, “Standing Firm in Power and Pride,” invites us to celebrate strength — not just in resistance, but in healing, community and joy.

For survivors of sexual violence, particularly Black and minoritised survivors, standing firm can mean many things. It can mean speaking truth to power in a world that often silences you. It can mean reclaiming ownership of your body, your story, and your identity. It can mean finding pride not only in survival, but in the everyday acts of self-care, rest, and refusal to be diminished.

At Survivors’ Network, we know that Black survivors face unique barriers when seeking support, from racism in institutions to cultural stigma to systemic underfunding of Black-led organisations. Yet, time and again, Black women and non-binary people have stood firm in the face of overlapping injustices, continuing to fight for change and care for one another. This month is a chance to honour that strength, and to listen.

But it also calls us to be vigilant. Across the UK, we are witnessing a deeply concerning rise in far-right influence and racist rhetoric; narratives that distort conversations about safety, belonging, and gender-based violence to push hate and division. These narratives harm all of us, but especially survivors of colour, who are too often erased or scapegoated.

Violence against women and marginalised genders is not a race issue — it’s a power issue. It’s rooted in patriarchy, inequality and control, ultimately systems that are all under the umbrella of white supremacy, not in any one culture or community. So, Standing firm in power and pride for us means rejecting this weaponisation of survivors’ pain and standing together against all forms of oppression, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and more.

This month, and every month, we honour the Black feminist thinkers and activists who have shown us what it means to stand firm:

• Pragna Patel, of Southall Black Sisters, who continues to fight for racial and gender justice.

• Stella Dadzie, historian and co-founder of OWAAD, whose work ensures Black women’s stories are never forgotten.

• Olive Morris, who built spaces for Black women’s organising in the 1970s and taught us the power of community.

• Chardine Taylor-Stone, writer and activist, who reminds us that liberation must include every intersection of identity.

• And organisations like Imkaan, who lead the way in shaping trauma-informed, anti-racist responses to sexual violence.

Their legacies remind us that survival itself is an act of resistance — and that healing, joy and collective care are forms of power.

This Black History Month, we stand firm with survivors. We celebrate resilience, creativity, and pride. And we recommit to creating a world where every survivor — in all their complexity and intersectionality — is safe, believed, and free.