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When white supremacists launched a campaign of racist and misogynist attacks against former state Rep. Kiah Morris, they hoped to silence her.
They failed.
Morris has continued to fight back and speak out since resigning her seat as a state representative from Bennington. She stepped down out of concern for the safety of her family, but she has not stepped back.
Her story is told in a new documentary, “Backlash – Misogyny in the Digital Age,” which has its first U.S. screening in the Vermont Statehouse on Feb. 7, during Black History Month. Morris is among four women profiled in the film who fight against cyberviolence. The women include “the most harassed politician in Italy” Laura Boldrini, French YouTube personality Marion Seclin and an Montreal elementary school teacher Laurence Gratton.
All four women pursue their tormentors and demand accountability from those who are responsible, ranging from the tech giants, to the state, law enforcement and the perpetrators.
Morris says that the backlash is against women.
“As women are stepping into our own power, as we are continuing to move with a society that’s supposed to move with us, there are many who cannot handle that level of progress. There are many who actively want us to retreat back into subservient roles,” she said.
The backlash is also about race. When Morris was elected in 2014, she was the second African American woman to serve in the Vermont Legislature. In January 2019, Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan announced that he would not bring criminal charges against the white nationalist who was harassing Morris and her family, insisting that racially offensive speech was protected. Civil rights groups denounced the decision. Morris has continued to pursue justice.
In 2021, an investigator with by the Vermont Human Rights Commission found grounds that the Bennington Police Department violated the human rights of Morris and her family and endangered their safety by withholding critical information about the white supremacist who had been targeting her. As part of the settlement, the Bennington Selectboard paid $137,000 to Morris and formally apologized to her.
Was justice done?
“Not really,” Morris said. “Nothing has changed in Bennington at all … to this day, not a single sanction, not a single call for resignation.” By contrast, she had to sell her house in Bennington and move to the Burlington area. She describes the settlement as “paltry.”
Morris says her case — and the documentary “Backlash” — have “raised the profile in a way that other people knew that they should try to fight back. And the system is so stacked against anyone who deserves to have justice and who deserves to have peace.”
“We have to continue to fight. I must not leave that legacy to my son to know that we said it was OK because it’s not OK,” she said.