Hundreds of thousands stream into DC for Women’s March

Organizers in the nation’s capital said they made preparations for a crowd of 500,000 marchers, but by Saturday afternoon there were worries that the crowd had swelled so large that organizers would not be able to carry out their planned march toward the White House. Nevertheless, an announcement from the stage vowed to move forward.

The women drawn to Washington carried signs, chanted against Trump, and told the Washington Examiner they were worried about the prospect of losing their freedoms.

Caroline Mitchell traveled from Missouri by bus to attend the march with approximately 150 other women. Many of the Missouri women rode in buses overnight to make it to D.C. on Saturday morning.

“People needed to refocus on something positive,” Mitchell said of why she traveled to D.C. for the Women’s March. “I think everybody felt disappointed, I think we thought things were going in a different direction. And I think also to connect with like-minded people so that we can make sure that if there are threats to our freedoms that we can stand together.”

Jennifer, who declined to give her last name, rode a bus with her fellow marchers from Jacksonville, Fla., because she wanted to be part of the opposition to the incoming Trump administration. The Florida women rode in overnight without stopping to sleep.

“Everything that he’s done so far [concerns me],” Jennifer said of Trump the day after he took office. “I think he’s a buffoon and I think he’s terrifying.”

Annie Sweiter of Cleveland, Ohio, called Trump’s “America-first” policies dangerous.

“His type of idea of America-only and America-first is misguided. We’re already a great country. We just have to be tolerant and have equal rights,” she said.

Sarah Church of Indianapolis, Ind., said she’s gay and worries for her family’s future.

“I am a same-sex couple and it’s hard to imagine whenever we don’t have the support,” she said. “There are a lot of rights that could be stripped from us that could really jeopardize our family.”

Many women traveled with their daughters, mothers or grandmothers.

At one point a mother-daughter duo sang off-key rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on a packed train en route to the march on Saturday morning. The pair also led the entire train full of women in scream-singing, “I Will Survive.”

The march drew celebrities including Scarlett Johansson, Ashley Judd, America Ferrera and Michael Moore, who all addressed the crowd. Rev. Jesse Jackson joined marchers, as did singer Katy Perry, who was very active with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and was seen with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards

Yet for its size, the crowd demonstrated nonviolently, as compared to the #DisruptJ20 anarchist-led protests that smashed windows and torched cars the day before.

Sean Langille contributed.