An army of women and their supporters estimated in the tens of thousands poured onto the front grounds of the Minnesota Capitol on Saturday to hear a call for resistance and mobilization against Donald Trump’s new presidency.
Carrying signs such as “Keep Your Tiny Hands Off Of My Uterus!!” and “We Will Not Be Silenced!” many demonstrators wore pink caps or scarves and some pushed baby buggies as they streamed to the rally, held the same day as marches in Washington and elsewhere in the U.S. and around the world.
St. Thomas senior Lauren Rockwell was among the thousands protesting at the Capitol, and felt empowered while surrounded by people she described as “unconditionally loving one another and supporting each other.”
“It’s inspiring that thousands of individuals around the world gathered in their home country to help in the fight for human rights,” Rockwell said. “This march is just the beginning of something big.”
Kjerstin Hagen, 28, of St. Paul, who teaches middle-school special education students at an American Indian magnet school, said she had to reassure students after Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in November.
“I work with a lot of children of color, and the day after the election, I had to go back to school and explain to my children that they don’t need to be scared. And I couldn’t explain what had happened. And they had a lot of questions. They were very scared,” Hagen said.
Kathy Chinn, 50, of St. Paul, brought her two daughters, her mother and mother-in-law to the Minnesota Women’s March. She said the Republican president does not represent her family’s values.
“I feel that respect for women and immigrants and everything that immigrants bring to our country in particular is not being represented by his views,” Chinn said.
The crowd heard from speakers including Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith and new state Rep. Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American lawmaker elected in the U.S.
“You are the powerful,” Omar, a Minneapolis Democrat, said at the rally. “We don’t live in a dictatorship. We live in a democracy.”
St. Paul Police spokesman Steve Linders said police estimated the crowd swelled to at least 60,000 — far surpassing organizers’ hopes for 20,000.
Police made only one arrest, a male counter-protester who marchers said sprayed a chemical irritant into the crowd. The man was booked into jail for aggravated assault.