Winfrey calls survivors ‘warriors of the light’ and draws parallels with protests of 1950s and 60s

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Oprah Winfrey has praised survivors of this month’s Florida school shooting who have channeled angst into activism for gun control, calling them “warriors of the light” and comparing them to civil rights pioneers.

Seventeen people were killed on 14 February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland. The massacre has sparked calls for walkouts, sit-ins and other actions on school campuses across the US and prompted unusually sustained debate among politicians of both parties about the possibility of gun law reform.

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Winfrey said she drew parallels between the protesting teens and the Freedom Riders of the 1960s, who rode buses into southern states in protest of racial segregation.

The Parkland students’ protests for gun control was “a proud moment”, she said.

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“It’s an evolving moment for our country,” she added. “The same thing happened, as you know, back in the 50s and 60s for the civil rights movement.

“Young people said: ‘We will not tolerate what our ancestors have tolerated. We have had enough and we’re willing to fight for it and willing to march in the streets for it and, if necessary, die for it.”’

Winfrey was speaking while promoting the upcoming film A Wrinkle in Time, directed by Ava DuVernay and starring her, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling. The film is adapted from Madeleine L’Engle’s science-fiction fantasy novel.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Oprah Winfrey with co-star Reese Witherspoon and director Ava DuVernay at a press conference for A Wrinkle in Time. Photograph: Alberto E Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

“These young people get to be literally warriors of the light,” Winfrey said. “That’s what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to – through their voices, through the March for Our Lives – say: We will not let this happen again. We are going to do what we can to banish the darkness.”’

The former talkshow host last week matched a $500,000 donation by George and Amal Clooney to the students’ planned marches, including one on 24 March in Washington.

On Friday, Winfrey said she was “definitely” not considering a run against Donald Trump for the White House in 2020, as has been recently rumoured, not least by the president himself.

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On Saturday Winfrey reacted to Trump’s recent tweeting about her, in which he called her “very insecure”.

“Nobody wants to be hate-tweeted, especially by the president,” she said. “So it’s not a comfortable thing I think for anybody on social media who’s had somebody say something about you that you didn’t feel was true.

“But I believe that you meet any kind of negativity in your life, that you meet it with light.”