Millions of people marched around the world Saturday in a manifest of solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington, a massive concentration of women’s self-empowerment that included resistance directed against President Trump’s agenda.
The initiative began as a social media post by a woman in California after the election and quickly grew. The march organizers obtained a permit for the Washington march to accommodate 200,000 people—it was clear, early on, that the number of people far exceeded the permit number as the massive crowd reached back to 14th Street, nearly a mile’s distance from the Washington Monument with people marching the width of the streets in all directions.
Organizers of the march released a platform of values upon which the march was driven. These values included calls to end violence and dismantle gender and racial inequality in the criminal justice system; support for reproductive freedom and resistance to roll-backs on healthcare services like birth control, HIV/AIDS care and prevention, and safe and legal abortions; and assured supportive measures taken to protect and remain inclusive of civil, immigrant, disability, worker and LGBTQIA rights. Climate and environmental rights were included in the platform, with the belief that every person and community has rights to clean water, clean air and public land.
The main march in Washington DC reportedly had an estimated 500,000 people in attendance. Larger cities, like Chicago, Portland, and New York reported crowds in the hundreds of thousands. An estimated 3,000 people marched in Dayton, but hundreds of people left the area on buses and joined the main march in Washington.
Ohio women, men and children departed Friday evening and along the drive, thousands crowded in the rest stops and welcome centers along highways in Pennsylvania and Maryland en route to Washington.
Among those who left in buses from Dayton to Washington was Kasey Coleman, a Miamisburg resident, who was concerned about women’s rights after hearing some of the remarks Trump made about women during his presidential campaign.
The 55-year-old completed the march in a wheelchair because she suffered from a tendon injury.
It didn’t slow her down at all.
“My wife was pushing me, so I didn’t have too much of a worry. I was so blown away, it was the first march I had ever been to,” said Coleman.
At the end of the march, Coleman said she was impressed by the magnitude of the peace and compassion she felt at the march as people went out of their way to make the event safe and wheelchair accessible.
“Everybody was stopping and going, “Can I help you?” At one point I had a jacket over my foot because I had taken my shoe off because it was too swollen for a shoe, and I put a jacket over it because my foot was cold, and different women came up and said, ‘Let me help you with that,’” said Coleman.
