Monrovia, March 18 -- Dressed in black, chanting in anger and grief, scores of women marched through Monrovia on Monday to demand justice for Toni Jackson, the wife of Samuel Jackson, a prominent economist and political commentator, and to press the Liberian government to act more forcefully against gender-based violence.

The women moved from the main campuses of the University of Liberia to the Capitol and then to the headquarters of the Liberia National Police, where they delivered a petition and held a short program on violence against women and girls. Their signs read: "Protect Women," "Believe Survivors," "Women Support Women," "Healing Not Silence," and "Stop Gender-Based Violence Against Women."

Their voices rose in a song that c...