Women's March on Washington DC
The Women's Marches were a series of worldwide protests on January 21, 2017, in support of women's rights and related causes. The rallies were aimed at Donald Trump, immediately following his inauguration as President of the United States, largely due to his statements and positions which had been deemed as anti-women or otherwise reprehensible.The marchers aimed to increase awareness of immigration reform, health care reform, protection of the natural environment, LGBTQ rights, racial justice, freedom of religion, and workers' rights. The marches were the largest to date of a series of protests against Trump, and the largest single-day demonstrations in U.S. history.
The march drew at least 500.000 people in Washington, and some estimates put worldwide participation at 4.8 million. At least 408 marches were planned in the U.S. and 168 in 81 other countries.
The first protest was planned in Washington, D.C., and is known as the Women's March on Washington. It was organized as a grassroots movement to "send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights". The Washington March was streamed live on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
Officials who had organized the marches later reported 673 marches had taken place worldwide, including 29 in Canada and 20 in Mexico,[9] with marches occurring on all seven continents, including Antarctica. In Washington D.C. alone, the protests were the largest political demonstrations since the anti–Vietnam War protests in the 1960s and 1970s, with both protests drawing in similar numbers. The Women's March crowds were peaceful, and no arrests were made in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle, where an estimated combined total of 2 million people marched.
Following the march, the organizers of the Women's March on Washington posted the "10 Actions for the first 100 Days" campaign for joint activism to keep up the momentum from the march.
On November 9, 2016, the day after the United States Election Day, in reaction to Trump's election and political views, Teresa Shook of Hawaii created a Facebook event and invited friends to march on Washington in protest. Similar Facebook pages created by Evvie Harmon, Fontaine Pearson, Bob Bland (a New York fashion designer), Breanne Butler, and others quickly led to thousands of women signing up to march. Harmon, Pearson, and Butler decided to unite their efforts and consolidate their pages, beginning the official Women's March on Washington.
To ensure that the march was led by women of differing races and backgrounds, Vanessa Wruble, co-founder and Head of Campaign Operations, brought on Tamika D. Mallory, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour to serve as National Co-Chairs alongside Bland.] Former Miss New Jersey USA Janaye Ingram served as Head of Logistics. Organizers stated that they were "not targeting Trump specifically" and that the event was "more about being proactive about women's rights". Sarsour called it "a stand on social justice and human rights issues ranging from race, ethnicity, gender, religion, immigration and healthcare". Still, opposition to and defiance of Trump infused the protests, which were sometimes directly called anti-Trump protests.
Cheers,
Errol