More than 1 million people rallied at women's marches in the nation's capital and other cities around the world 21 of january on President Donald Trump's first full day in office. "Welcome to your first day. We will not go away," marchers in Washington chanted.
The Washington rally alone attracted over 500,000 people.
"We march today for the moral core of this nation, against which our new president is waging a war," actress America Ferrera told the Washington crowd. "Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday. But the president is not America ... We are America, and we are here to stay."
Turnout in the capital was so heavy that the designated march route along the National Mall was impassable. Long after the program ended, groups of demonstrators were still marching and chanting in different parts of the city.
The rally featured speeches from women's rights activist Gloria Steinem, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, Madonna, actresses Ashley Judd and Scarlett Johansson and director Michael Moore, among others. A group of largely female senators and other politicians took the stage together at one point
Various causes were attached to the march, which was largely billed as a demonstration in support of women's rights and civil rights but for many had clear political undertones connected to the inauguration of Donald Trump.
Steinem thanked the crowd for showing up, declaring, "We have people power, and we will use it. Steinem suggested that the size and energy of the gathering was a positive outgrowth of Trump's election and inauguration
"This is the upside of the downside. This is an outpouring of energy and true democracy like I have never seen in my very long life. It is wide in age. It is deep in diversity," Steinem said.
She praised "our great leaders" Barack and Michelle Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, "who told the whole world that women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights," quoting Clinton's speech at a United Nations conference in 1995.
In Chicago, organizers canceled the march portion of their event for safety reasons because of an overflow crowd of an estimated 250,000. People made their way through the streets on their own anyway. In New York, well over 100,000 marched past Trump's home at glittering Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. More than 100,000 gathered on Boston Common, and a similar number demonstrated in Los Angeles.
More than 600 sister marches were planned worldwide. Crowd estimates from police and organizers around the globe added up to well over a million.
