After Inauguration, Women's March Highlights Deeply Divided Country
That fear drove the masses to Washington only a
day after Trump took the Oath of Office. Men, women, children carried
signs or wore shirts protesting the president's rhetoric during the
campaign and the policies they feared would threaten reproductive
rights, civil rights and the environment. They carried signs reading,
"Nasty Women Keep Fighting," "Hate builds walls but love builds
bridges," "Want to make America great again? Resign!" among many others.
Some chanted, "We are the popular vote!" Others chanted, "This is what
democracy looks like."
Early estimates showed that 500,000 people arrived in Washington for the
march. The protest route was originally scheduled to go down
Pennsylvania Avenue, but as more and more people arrived they began
walking West down Constitution Avenue, next to the National Mall and
near the White House. Protests also were held in all 50 states as well as other countries.
"As a woman, person of color and member of the
LGBTQ community I feel our rights are being threatened," says Morgan
Drain, 31, a graphic designer who came to the march from Pittsburgh. "We
need to make sure that we're standing up for progress."
She says she felt a sense of unity with other marchers and was encouraged by all the different groups of people who showed up.
"People not directly affected still care about protecting others," she says.
Edmund, a Vietnam veteran who asked to provide
only his first name and was in town from New Mexico, says he decided to
join the march to show his support.
A friend who came to march with her, Phoebe Kilby, 63, from Asheville, North Carolina, agreed. "Trump was speaking to his base," she says. "People today are showing they want to be heard. He needs to see all the different people and listen to them, too."
"[Trump] pretends to be a patriot, but I don't think he will do anything to help veterans," he says.
Some protesters said they were troubled by Trump's inauguration speech
the previous day. Wendy Harmick, 62, who came to D.C. to protest from
Northern Virginia, called it "terrifying" and more in line with his
campaign speeches.
"It wasn't about reaching out to our neighbors," she says.
A friend who came to march with her, Phoebe Kilby, 63, from Asheville, North Carolina, agreed. "Trump was speaking to his base," she says. "People today are showing they want to be heard. He needs to see all the different people and listen to them, too."
But Trump supporters who were still in town following the inauguration said that they thought the protests were premature.
"Give the guy a chance first," says Steven
Goodman, 48, who traveled all over the country selling Trump memorabilia
at rallies and was selling buttons, flags and hats in D.C. "Even a few
months. It's too early. The day after? Really?"
One family who had come in from New Jersey to
attend the inauguration said that anti-Trump protesters had been yelling
obscenities at them all weekend. They voted for Trump, they said,
because they believed he would work to protect jobs, and said the way
they experienced the inauguration was different from the dark tone they
had seen on TV when they watched recaps on the news Friday evening.
Torey Graham, 47, from Cedarburg, Wisconsin – a
state that Trump swung Republican – says she was also encouraged by
Trump's speech. "He said he would make the country ours and told us to
dream bigger," she says. "I never felt I had a voice [under the previous
administration]."
Those protesting, she says, had not threatened
her or her 17-year-old son, who had traveled with her. "They have a
voice, too," she says of the protesters, adding, however, that she
didn't like that the march organizers had removed a pro-life sponsor.
"They don't represent me at all," she says. "There are a lot of people between both coasts." 
Angie Bellard, 54, a Trump supporter from Louisiana, said she thought the president's inauguration speech was amazing.
"You may not respect him, but respect the office
he holds," she said of the protesters. She hopes to one day see a woman
president, and particularly hopes it will be Ivanka, one of Trump's
daughters.
Of the comments Trump has made about women,
including a recording in which he talked about groping women without
their consent, Bellard said she believed he had changed and extolled him
for asking for forgiveness.
But some protesters said they were skeptical
that Trump's rhetoric would change as he runs the country. Drain, who
was handing out fliers for another protest in March, says she isn't
optimistic.
Harmick says one silver lining for her on Inauguration day was the way the country peacefully transitioned its power.
"Maybe the power and majesty of the office will change him," she says.
But, she adds, "I saw a sign that says, 'They want to take America back to the 50s, and I'm not coming.' That's how I feel."