Thousands of demonstrators in cities across the country filled public squares, parks and streets on Saturday to protest against President-elect Donald Trump, part of a wave of national resistance not seen in recent election cycles.
They were transgender individuals, the children of immigrants and parents toting infants on their backs. They were families, students, and men and women of all ages and races. Many carried cardboard signs. "Show the world what the popular vote looks like," read one, "Putin Won," said another. As throngs marched through city streets, the participants joined in a cry of "Not my president!"
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Michael Moore visits Trump Tower
Filmmaker and activist Michael Moore visits Trump Tower in New York and tries to speak to President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday.
In one of the largest anti-Trump demonstrations since his election Tuesday, a mass of people marched from Union Square in Manhattan to Trump Tower, the headquarters and home of Trump. Protesters marched around one of Trump's buildings in Chicago. In Los Angeles, thousands marched up Wilshire Boulevard, forming a crowd that stretched for nearly a dozen blocks.
"I'm just doing my part in democracy," said Alfred Diaz, 25, who joined the protest in Los Angeles. "I feel that this is a way for me to voice my opinion."
"I disagree with a lot of Trump's stances, so I'm just out here practising my rights," said Diaz, who was born in Los Angeles but whose family is from Mexico. "I'm unsure and I'm unsatisfied."
The demonstrations followed nearly a week of protests, as thousands have taken to the streets. Demonstrations have taken place in Oakland, California; Baltimore; Kansas City, Missouri; Milwaukee; Miami; and Portland, Oregon.
Students have walked out of classes, protesters have blocked highways, and demonstrators have clashed with the police. Speakers and protesters have talked about their fears of deportation, reduced access to birth control, a rollback of same-sex marriage and the potential for racially motivated violence.
It is uncharted territory for a modern US presidency. One would have to go back to Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860 to see these types of widespread demonstrations in response to the election of a president, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian who teaches at Rice University in Houston.
Lincoln won only about 40 per cent of the popular vote and was not even on the ballot in some Southern states. Spontaneous protests broke out across the country after the Lincoln victory, Brinkley said.
For many of those who have turned out for the current protests, it has been a kind of group therapy, and some seem to be cementing new, cross-sectional liberal coalitions.
People with "Nasty Women" T-shirts have stood with signs that read "Climate change is real". Black Lives Matter protesters have marched alongside those proclaiming themselves "Undocumented and Unafraid".
Most of the gatherings have remained peaceful, but tempers have flared sporadically. Demonstrators burnt trash cans in Oakland on Wednesday night, and tried to block a highway on Thursday before the police intervened.
In Portland on Thursday night, one marcher was shot, according to local reports. And after the protest there thinned out, dozens of people the police described as anarchists remained in the streets, clashing with officers.
Car windows were smashed and smoke filled the air during what the police deemed a riot.
But beyond the commotion in the streets, activists are pursuing strategies for what they think will be tumultuous times during a Trump administration.
In Wisconsin, the Latino rights group Voces de la Frontera has scheduled forums to provide emotional support to Latinos and other minorities and to brainstorm ways to help immigrants fight policies that might hurt them.
Cat Brooks, a co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project in Oakland, said her group and other leaders in the city were planning to raise money to provide direct services for social programs they feel certain will be cut under a Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress.
They were making plans, for example, to find ways to offer diabetes testing and counselling if the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, is repealed.
Ron Gochez, an organiser with Union del Barrio, an immigrants' rights group in Los Angeles, said it would gather community organisations to discuss what to do if mass deportations occurred.
It would also train undocumented immigrants to use their mobile phone cameras if immigration enforcement agents show up at their doors and would help people set up emergency phone lists so they could call neighbours if they are picked up for deportation proceedings.
"It's not just saying that we're against Trump. We have to defend ourselves against the policies he's promising to create," he said.
In New York on Saturday, protesters were quick to describe their motivations for marching.
Fin Justin Ross, 20, a transgender man from New Jersey, said he had woken up about 3.30am on Saturday to pick up friends for the rally. "When Trump won, my first thought was I needed to go back into the closet," he said.
Virginia Jimenez, 45, a Mexican-American from Long Island, said she came to the protest to show that "not all Mexicans are bad people", adding, "I raised three sons without asking for any handouts."
Lisa Harris, also of Long Island, spoke about her father, a Holocaust survivor. "I know hate," she said.
Many protest leaders had supported Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary race and either did not vote or chose a third-party candidate in the general election, said Ben Becker, an organiser with the Answer Coalition, an anti-war and anti-racism activist group based in New York. Their anger, he said, had been exacerbated by the conciliatory tone shown to Trump by President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton after Clinton's defeat.
More protests are planned for the coming days, and preparations are under way for a large demonstration at Trump's inauguration in January.
Leaders from several black civil rights groups such as the National Action Network and the NAACP have been holding conference calls to form a legislative strategy, the Reverend Al Sharpton said.
They plan to lobby Congress on criminal justice reform and expanding voting rights, highlighting what they believe are the negative effects of voter identification laws and reductions in early voting periods, Sharpton said.
They hope to use the stories of millions of newly insured Americans to highlight the devastating consequences of repealing the Affordable Care Act. They will fight any new stop-and-frisk policies in court, Sharpton said, and bring witnesses to congressional hearings to challenge cabinet appointments they see as questionable.
Their efforts will kick off with a rally and a march in Washington for the birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King, just days before Trump is inaugurated, Sharpton said.
"We're not going to go away and say, because we lost an election, that we, therefore, lost our right to stand up for civil rights and civil liberty," he said. "This, in many ways, we feel is bigger than one election."
As the protest began to wane in Los Angeles, Jay Brown jnr, 42, surveyed the large group around him.
"If you look around, there are a lot of families out here," he said. "That should say something to you. People are trying to teach their kids what's acceptable."
The New York Times