After a week of rain, woman and men of all ages gathered with the purpose of marching for women’s rights and equality in downtown Los Angeles to celebrate the third annual Women’s March on January 19.
The march started in Pershing Square at 8:30 a.m. and ran all the way to City Hall where it ended at 2:00 p.m.
At the south west side of the event, at the stage at Pershing Square, they had several performances, activists, politicians and celebrities, with names like Raja Kumari and Wendy Carrillo being the highlight of the first part of the event.
They brought inspiring messages to the crowd of an estimated 500,000 attendees. The crowd cheered and cried as the advancements towards female equality were listed out by the people on the stage.
One of the attendants of the march is Megan Trono, a nursing major from Citrus’s neighboring school, Azusa Pacific University.
“I found to the march to be empowering. It was heartwarming to see how the community got together for causes that advocates for women’s children’s health, education, wellness, and safety,” said Trono.
After Kumari’s performance, the host invited the population to “march on the streets” of L.A. The gathered marchers raised their signs and chanted in unison as they made their way down Hill Street, towards Grand Park in front of City Hall.
On the way to Grand Park, they were met with dissent from a group of Trump supporters who held signs that said “Women 4 Trump” and “women can support Trump all damn day long, every damn day.”
Some activists stopped and engaged the dissenters in arguments that quickly got heated.
Upon arrival to City Hall, the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, appeared on the stage and gave a speech to the crowd.
“Our president showed us an imaginary crowd, we showed them a real crowd,” the mayor said with forte. The crowd jeered at the mention of the president’s name.
After the second part of the event ended at Grand Park, the leaving activists were met with a lot of Trump supporters outside of the park.
These Trump supporters were mostly carrying around cameras and attempting to film YouTube videos. The police was called on scene to try and mitigate the possibility of a brawl.
