Crowds swarmed the streets this weekend in support of the women’s marches that swept the nation in cities like Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and New York. The current tally is at 3.2 million participants and counting, according to Vice News, which could make the women’s marches Saturday the largest protest in U.S. history.

The time and place of the original march, The Women’s March on Washington, was no coincidence: it occurred a single day after President Donald Trump took the oath of office in the city that he will now govern from. Although organizers have said that the intent of the march was to promote equality rather than bash the new president, countless signs and chants expressing a distaste in the new leader of the free world marked Trump as the symbol of exactly what the marchers were standing against. Looking back at Trump’s run for the presidency, it isn’t surprising that many protestors took the opportunity to speak their minds
about him.

It is events like this that prove the First Amendment is a beautiful thing. It’s even more beautiful when individuals exercise their rights to religion, free speech, assembly, petition and free press. Some people have felt that these rights are threatened by a Trump presidency and that’s what makes the women’s marches so much more powerful.

Women, men and children all across the nation exercised these rights in solidarity with those who feel unsafe within the current political climate.

And it should also be noted that the women’s march was not only prevalent in large cities across the nation. Small cities took part as well, including Charleston in the Women’s March on West Virginia, which took place at the Capitol Complex and drew in nearly 3,000
supporters. This dwarfed the event’s initial goal of 100 attendees and even outpaced the 1,300 who RSVP’d on Facebook.

Other countries and continents expressed interest as well, with marches taking place in London, Mexico City and even Paradise Bay, Antarctica.

To say that the women’s march was a success is an understatement. Yet, people on social media are seemingly still split about the huge turnouts. Some advocate strongly for women’s rights and solidarity in their feminism, while others blatantly argue that women and their allies have no reason to march, that their rights aren’t subject to meddling from the new administration.

Still, the women’s march was an impressive feat no matter how you look at it and it will be interesting to see if future demonstrations have as
much success.