Jan. 21, 2017--The day after
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States,
women and men from around the country gathered in Washington, DC for
one of the biggest marches in recent years. Pink knitted caps
replaced the red "Make America
Great Again" baseball caps of the day before. Protesters carried
signs advocating for issues ranging from women's reproductive
rights,
LGBTQ
rights,
racial
justice
and climate change to attacks on
Trump. They chanted, "We need a leader, not a creepy
tweeter." WMATA
reported the day was "the second-busiest day in Metro history
with 1,001,613 trips." According to
a chart of crowd estimates coordinated by University of Connecticut
associate professor of political scientist Jeremy Pressman, between
470,000 and 680,000 people participated in the march in Washington,
DC.,
and sister
rallies
were
held in cities across the U.S. and around the world. At least in
Washington, DC the March did have some issues with diversity.
People of color participated but the preponderance of faces were
white. A statement from the organizers described how they had
"work[ed] hard to engage people from diverse communities," but noted
that, "The reality is that the women who initially started organizing
were almost all white (+)."
Nonetheless the March showed that the resistance had arrived. It
recalled some of the Tea Party rallies of some years ago, and like the
Tea Party these progressive activists now face the challenge of
building a movement that can affect policy. |