Thousands of people bundled in hats, gloves and scarves marched in drizzly weather to the Lincoln Memorial Saturday to protest President-elect Donald Trump and Republican party policies that they believe will undermine the rights of women, immigrants, and social and racial minorities.

Protestors in what was called the People’s March walked from Farragut Square, McPherson Square and Franklin Park to the snowy grounds of the Lincoln Memorial, where Ben Jealous, executive director of the environmental group the Sierra Club, said: “We are powerful enough...to keep making progress no matter who is president.”

The marchers, carrying colorful signs reading, “Will Not Be Silent” and “Our Freedoms, Our Futures, Our Fight,” crowded around the partially frozen reflecting pool as far back as the World War II Memorial. Some people ventured out onto the ice but were told to stay off.

Chanting “People, people can’t you see, what freedom means for me?” the demonstrators walked in cold conditions under overcast skies to support issues like democracy, climate, D.C. statehood and bodily autonomy.

One protestor wore a balloon-like costume depicting Trump in a diaper, and held a sign that said “Still a Loser.”

Another marcher, Isabella Olander, wore an earring that said, “Mind Your Own Uterus.”

“I am putting my body where my heart is,” she said.

The march, two days before Inauguration Day, was a joint effort among civil rights, racial and social justice, and reproductive health organizations. It comes as the extremely cold temperatures projected for Monday have moved Trump’s swearing-in ceremony indoors to the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The march appeared to be the largest local anti-Trump protest in recent months. D.C. police said no incidents had been reported.

As protesters walked along 17th Street NW toward the Lincoln Memorial, the crowd was so large that it filled the road, clumping together and causing the group to pause multiple times from congestion.

Latin music blared from a green and white “peace tank,” rolling down the road while other protesters used megaphones to demand “equality” and participated in call and response chants like: “What do we want? Freedom! When do we want it? Now!”

The crowd was a diverse mix of people motivated by a range of issues from anti-war, abortion rights, Palestinian rights, to immigration.

Organizers say they hope that the march will inspire people who have felt exhausted and resigned, and that protesters can turn their passions, outrage and fears into collective opposition.

At one point, a few antiabortion activists held large posters of fetuses. But abortion rights advocates quickly covered them up with their own signs.

Cassie Dominicis, 33, stood in the crowd at Franklin Park wearing the same pink pussyhat she knitted for the Women’s March in 2017.

That day, she marched in Washington with her mother, describing it as “magical.” She returned this year to be among like-minded people willing to fight back against policies that she said strip rights away from people, especially attacks on the LGBTQ community and abortion access.

“When you have so many millions of Americans voting like you don’t matter... It’s good to be in a big crowd of people that that make you feel like you do matter,” said Dominicis, a financial analyst from Charlotte, North Carolina.

This time, however, her mother isn’t with her. While thousands march, her mother, who now lives in Wisconsin, will be going to a farmer’s market.

“It’s just tough for her to even face,” she said.

Next to Dominicis stood her friend, Nicole Cortazzo, who held up a sign that read “Keep Going!”

Cortazzo, a 33-year-old marketing strategist also from Charlotte, said she feels like there’s a tendency among some people to think: “What’s even the point of trying anymore?”

“As soon as that starts to happen,” she said, “that’s when you really, really need to fight harder.”

She felt numb after the election and said it took a few weeks for her feel inspired again to take action. She said she is worried for her younger brother, who is in the middle of a gender transition and is fearful he won’t have proper access to health care.

He called her the morning after Election Day in tears, saying their parents were fighting and talking about leaving the country, she said. “We can’t leave the country,” she recalled telling him. “We have to stay and protect it. And it’s going to be okay, but it’s only going to be okay if we keep fighting.”

At Farragut Square, Cynthia Hatfield, 75, of Asheville, North Carolina, said that the issue that touches her most is climate change. The town had been badly damaged by Hurricane Helene last year.

“But COVID, the election ... it feels like everything is changing at once, politics as well as [the] climate,” she said.

Hatfield grew up in D.C. but said she hadn’t visited for many years. .

Though her home only suffered minor damage from the hurricane, Hatfield said she knows it will take her community years to rebuild.

At 75, she says she advocates for climate action not for herself, but for generations to come.

“We might not see the results of us holding these actions in our lifetime, but if we continue generation after generation holding the hope that we can have a change, the planet will survive,” she said.

Elsewhere, Leah Hernandez, 20, carried a sign reading: “Immigrants are the backbone of our country.”

A first-generation American, she says she’ll never forget the horrifying period of her childhood when her father was nearly deported to El Salvador - the country he had fled.

“If immigrants have come here for centuries, why is it a problem whenever people are trying to seek asylum here and seek peace and make a living for their family while also contributing to our society?” she said. “They’re contributing members and I feel like it’s very important to recognize those who are working very hard to make this a better place for all of us.”

Wava Fleck, 17, from the Denver area, said she, too, had attended the Women’s March in 2017, with her mother and grandmother.

“I didn’t entirely grasp the magnitude of the issues because I was 9 but I still wanted to be a part of something,” she said.

“Now that I’m 17 and kind of at a pivotal point in my life I think it’s important to speak up for what I believe in,” she said.

Fleck’s mother, Karlynn Cory, said she brought both her daughter and her 14-year-old son to the march this year because her father had instilled the importance of civic engagement in her and she wanted to pass that wisdom down to her children.

“He taught me to vote in every election, to protest, to volunteer at the polls, to knock on doors, to do all the things in order make the world a better place,” Cory said.

“I think that it’s one of our rights as Americans to be able to peacefully rally,” she said. “There’s never going to be full agreement on all issues and that’s ok... but it is frustrating that we’re here again 8 years later.”

The 2017 Women’s March drew more than 1 million people to protest in D.C. and elsewhere the day after Trump’s first inauguration. That demonstration is widely considered the country’s largest single-day protest. While organizers didn’t anticipate that Saturday’s event would come close to those numbers, they emphasized that beating a history-making day of protests is not the goal.

“If the prerequisite were that we shouldn’t get out or shouldn’t take action … unless it can be bigger than the biggest thing that ever was, no one would ever take action,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the executive director of Women’s March.

Marching is one of the “easiest entry points” for first-time protesters or people who are interested in becoming more involved, said Tamika Middleton, the managing director of Women’s March. Organizers were encouraging protesters to dress warmly and to pack hand and feet warmers, small backpacks and “your feminist spirit, your defiance to injustice, and your demands to protect our freedoms,” according to the People’s March website.

The diverse range of issues reflects the goal of this march as providing a big tent for protesters - one that seeks to attract people who champion liberal views on a host of issues. Leaders have specifically pointed to Project 2025 - a Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a second Trump presidency that he has disavowed but that involved veterans of his first administration - as a threat to democracy and civil and human rights.

previous coverage

• Trump arrives in Washington for inaugural celebrations to mark his return to power
• Guard troops will wear a special patch at Trump’s inauguration to make it clear they aren’t police 
• Trump swearing-in will move inside Capitol Rotunda because of intense cold weather