Local organizers have decided not to hold a women's march in Chicago next month amid a growing controversy surrounding the national organization's relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Dozens of rallies are set to take place in major cities around the country on Jan. 19, including in other cities like New York and Washington, as part of the national Women's March movement.

Women's March Chicago, which is not associated with the larger national group, announced on Facebook last month that it would not hold a January rally. Officials with the group say they had instead decided to have a march in October instead of January to get people "fired up" for the midterm elections.

"There's no march, there's no rally," Sara Kurensky, a Women's March Chicago board member, told The Chicago Tribune . "We're going to provide ways for people to organize and take action in their local communities."

The national group has faced backlash over February remarks by Farrakhan in which he praised Women's March co-founder Tamika Mallory in a speech. Mallory has supported and publicly praised Farrakhan, who has a history of making anti-Semitic comments. In the same speech as the one in which he praised Mallory, Farrakhan said that "the powerful Jews are my enemy."

While the national Women's March organization condemned the comments in March, the public criticized leaders for not responding sooner. Following the fallout, chapters of the movement began speaking out. The Washington state chapter announced earlier this month that it would dissolve, according to The Hill , and the chapter in Rhode Island announced it would separate from the national movement.

The co-founder of the national Women's March, Teresa Shook, also criticized leaders and called on them in November to step down.

Kurensky told the Tribune that, although the chapter's decision to not hold a march was not related to the recent controversy, the chance to distance the city's organization from the national movement and its leaders is a "side benefit."