The patrons sitting outside of Jim Gould’s Restaurant, and Ko Fusion, 1 E. Main St., looked in bewilderment at the commotion happening between them Friday night. It was a rally that was almost festive, but with a very serious overtone shown on the faces of many of the participants.

The event taking place was “Take Back the Night,” organized by Rape Crisis Services, the University’s Office of Women’s Programs and the University Counseling Center. In downtown Champaign, the speakers addressed the audience in the same place that Susan B. Anthony once spoke as an abolitionist. Their cause was to raise awareness and fight back against rape, in light of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

For several of the women who made up this crowd, it was a moment to come together and feel empowered after their lives were shaken by violent disturbances of sexual assault.

Kristi Dixon, Parkland student and local activist, had been sexually assaulted three times in her life by the age of 22. Twice she was molested by a family member at the ages of four and ten, and at 17 she was held at gunpoint by her boyfriend and raped, which she described as “pretty brutal.”

Her grandmother, Marilyn Davis, stood by her side as they watched the other presenters, waiting for her turn to speak at the microphone.

“I think what she’s doing is great,” Davis said. “It’s something that needs to be talked about, and what better person to help than her.”

Dixon offered words of comfort to other survivors, telling them that they were not alone. She stressed that no more attention be given to the perpetrators of this violence.

“They’ve had enough of our time,” she said, met by a huge response from the crowd.

Pat Morey, Champaign resident and rape survivor stood in the crowd, holding a sign that read, “Hell yes I’m angry.”

“We’re always accused of being angry all of the time, and I think anger is an appropriate response to rape,” she said.

Morey was sexually assaulted while in graduate school at the University when she was 25 years old. She has come to the “Take Back the Night” rally every year since 1980. She also had firsthand accounts of the negative reaction that some male community members have responded with.

“They’re not always drunk,” she said. “They yell slurs, derogatory words, rape jokes.”

These jokes, according to Jennie Hill of Rape Crisis Services, are sayings like “No means yes,” and have even went as far as pushing one of the women during their demonstration.

The youngest survivor who spoke to the group was University High senior Eleanor Unsworth. She was raped at the age of 17, and has not yet seen her next birthday since her attack.

She read a poem she wrote shortly after her rape, with powerful words revealing her mixed emotions of hurt and anger. The words in the poem expressed her wishes that what she faced as a result of her rape be projected to her attacker. The last line read, “I promise I will leave you with a painful and revealing scar.”

She said she plans to confront her rapist, not to hurt him, but to make him accept what he did.

The rally ended with a march – a long line of survivors, and supporters of different races, sexual orientations and for the first time in Champaign-Urbana, different genders. Together they began their march down Main Street and as they walked away, one could hear them chant, “What do we want? Safe Streets! When do we want them? Now!”