What to Know
- Another Women's March is scheduled for Saturday on the anniversary of last year's massive nationwide rally
- Organizers have said this year's rally is focused on getting out the vote and supporting groups impacted by Trump administration policy
- Some 400,000 people showed up to last year's rally, although it's unclear if this year's will be as large
Thousands of people plan to hit the streets of Manhattan on Saturday for a follow-up to last year’s massive Women’s March.
More than 400,000 demonstrators flooded Midtown last January for the Women’s March, which came the same weekend that Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. Another 400,000 to 500,000 people marched in Washington, D.C., along with hundreds of thousands more in at least 300 cities around the world.
On the official website for this year's march, organizers said that over the past year, "basic rights for women, immigrants, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, the religious and nonreligious, people of color and even Mother Earth have struggled to survive under the weight of the current administration."
"We must stand together to demand and defend our rights. We will not be silent!" organizers wrote.
More than 100,000 people on Facebook said they were interested in going to the march as of Friday evening. it's unclear how many people will attend this year's march, but it comes amid the #MeToo movement that has lit a fire under the fight for women's rights.
"I'm tired of feeling like second class, you know, like inferior to a man," Mela Sierra said. "It's time, it's definitely time for a change and it's time for us to stand up and, you know, put the moving foot forward."
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At last year’s march, participants snaked from the UN headquarters on the East Side, across 42nd Street and up Fifth Avenue to Trump Tower, chanting “This is what democracy looks like” and “Not my president” along the way. Fifth Avenue was completely shut down for blocks as demonstrators pumped homemade picket signs in the air to a steady drum beat. The loud roar of ralliers' cheers could be heard for blocks.
Street closures for the 2018 Women's March here.
This year’s march is kicked off by a rally at 61st Street and Central Park West at 11:30 a.m. The march starts an hour later. Participants will begin the march at 61st Street and Central Park West and then walk down to Columbus Circle before heading east to Sixth Avenue, which they’ll take to Bryant Park, according to organizers. The main entrance point for the march will be at 72nd Street and Central Park West; the ending points are along Sixth Avenue, between 44th and 46 streets.
Speakers at this year's event are expected to touch on equal pay, health care and the #MeToo movement, and they look to display a message of unity as they try to get the attention of the nation's politicians and people sitting at home.
"I know that it does make a difference to the people watching to see that huge display of support for those causes," Katherine Teed-Arthur said.
Emily Young, of Brooklyn, added, "Last year and I hope, tomorrow, will be a day of less fear."
On Friday afternoon, a local knit and crochet group called “Stitch and Bitch of Westchester County” made hats for those attending the Women’s March on Saturday. They planned to donate the hats to ArtsWestchester’s Gift Shop, which would sell them for $7 each.
Across the Hudson River, the Women’s March on New Jersey has been planning a similar event in Morristown. The march begins at 11 a.m. at the Morristown Town Hall on South Street.
