3 Women's March board members out months after controversy

Three founding members of the Women’s March Board, are leaving the board months after some controversy.

The organization announced that Tamika Mallory, Bob Bland and Linda Sarsour will leave the board and 16 others will join.

The statement did not address the reasons behind their departure, saying only that they "will transition off of the Women’s March Board and onto other projects focused on advocacy within their respective organizations."

Questions about alleged anti-Semitism and possible racist rhetoric connected to the Women’s March organizers swirled for months in late 2018 and ahead of the 2019 march in response to an article in online Jewish magazine Tablet that made such claims, which the organizers denied.

Fellow founding board member Carmen Perez-Jordan will remain on the board.

The statement from the Women's March notes that the board shuffle came as the result of an open-call solicitation and board nomination committee selection and transition that started as of July.

Organizers repeatedly denied all accusations of misconduct or using inappropriate speech, but the issue resurfaced in January when two of the march's organizers appeared on "The View."

During the show, march co-president Tamika Mallory was asked why she posted a photo of herself and Louis Farrakhan, a minister and leader of the Nation of Islam, who has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements in the past. Mallory posted the photo on Instagram with a caption that included the hashtag for the title "Greatest Of All Time."

"I didn’t call him the greatest of all time because of his rhetoric," Mallory responded. "I called him the greatest of all time because of what he’s done in black communities."

Pressed on the issue, Mallory said, "I don't agree with many of Minister Farrakhan's statements," but when asked directly if she condemned them, she demurred.

"I don't agree with these statements," Mallory responded. "It’s not my language, it’s not the way that I speak, it’s not how I organize ... I should never be judged through the lens of a man."

Mallory’s co-president, Bob Bland, responded to allegations that the organization expressed anti-Semitic beliefs behind closed doors, saying the claims "are not true. That is not how that meeting happened."

"The people that the journalist spoke to did not tell the truth, period, full stop," Bland said. "The Women’s March unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism, bigotry, transphobia ... We condemn any statements of hate."

The 16 new board members were listed in the Women's March statement as Samia Assed, Zahra Billoo, Charlene Carruthers, Mrinalini Chakraborty, Rabbi Tamara Cohen, Rev. T. Sheri Dickerson, Sarah Eagle Heart, Lucy Flores, Ginny Goldman, Ginna Green, Shawna Knipper, Isa Noyola, Kelley Robinson, Rinku Sen, Leslie Templeton and Lu-Shawn Thompson.