This year’s Women’s March on New Jersey was supposed to “bring together kindred spirits of women grounded in diversity,” according to the event’s mission statement.

But one of the key groups supporting Saturday’s march in Trenton has pulled out due to feuding among organizers.

Leaders of Black Lives Matter-N.J. withdrew their support of the march Wednesday after clashing with the Women’s March founder Elizabeth Meyer and the organizing committee, according to a statement from the group.

“Upon attending the first meeting held in Trenton, after a long and tense conversation, we were told that this march is basically a ‘white women’s march’ (being that the lead organizer is a white woman who has final say),” said a post on the Black Lives Matter-N.J. Facebook page.

Re: BLM NJ ceases involvement with the Women’s March on New Jersey Date: Jan 16, 2019 Black Lives Matter NJ... Posted by Black Lives Matter-NJ on Thursday, January 17, 2019

Black Lives Matter leaders will not be speaking at or working at the Trenton march, the group said.

“We found that the leadership expressed many classist, agist and internalized racist views that we simply do not adhere to. It became increasingly clear, that our name was being exploited and if we continued to attempt to work with this group, we would only be participating in harm against the very communities in which we hold ourselves accountable,” the group’s statement said.

The organizers of the Women’s March on New Jersey said they were sad and disappointed the Black Lives Matter group withdrew as one of the hosts.

“We regret any miscommunication and missteps that damaged our relationship with them. While we tried, in good faith, to listen and hear their concerns, we clearly weren’t successful. We had tremendous hope that our collaboration might bring greater understanding and awareness for everyone who had committed to this movement of tearing down stereotypes, eliminating margins, and reevaluating the true meaning of diversity,” the Women’s March leadership team said in a statement.

At least two other groups that had previously supported the Women’s March on New Jersey -- the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey -- previously pulled out of the march amid complaints about non-white women not getting enough of a voice in the planning of the event.

The Women’s March on New Jersey still has a long list of other sponsors and partners, including the New Jersey Education Association, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. The speakers at the 11 a.m. march are scheduled to include First Lady Tammy Murphy and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th District.

The behind-the-scenes dispute at the New Jersey march is one of several controversies that have marred this year’s Women’s March events around the country.

Some former supporters, including some Jewish women, are boycotting this year’s Women’s March events because of links between organizers of the national Women’s March organization and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has made anti-Semitic and homophobic statements.

The Women’s March national organization put out a statement saying their leaders value all participants, including gay and Jewish marchers.

“The Women’s March exists to fight bigotry and discrimination in all their forms — including homophobia and anti-Semitism — and to lift up the voices of women who are too often left out," the statement said.

Several local marches, including the Women’s March on New Jersey and the Women’s March on Philadelphia, have put out their own statements distancing themselves from the national organization and stressing they are independently-run groups with no financial or administrative ties to the national march.

Disputes among leaders of New York City women’s march groups have also resulted in at least three rival women’s march events scheduled in Manhattan on Saturday.

There are at least five Women’s March events scheduled in New Jersey on Saturday. In addition to Trenton, separately-run marches are scheduled in Atlantic City, Asbury Park, Newark, Leonia and Franklin in Somerset County.

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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