This past Saturday, over 1,000 Richmonders streamed down Monument Avenue in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington, planned for this weekend. The March on Monument drew a crowd of advocates from all corners of the Richmond social justice community. Nicki Stein was there and filed this report.
Free Egunfemi speaks into a megaphone, staring into a sea of faces assembled beneath the long shadow of a statue commemorating Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
"Right now I see brown faces, I see women, I see men, I see children, it’s all kinds of reasons why people have come together today. Does it have something to do with the fact that we’re all living in Richmond, Virginia and we all just wanna live?” she asks to a lively crowd.
Homemade poster board signs pepper the ocean of fleece-clad protesters. Katharine Torgersen isn’t normally a sign girl, but she says, in the face of a Trump presidency, "c'mon."
On one side her sign says "bridges over walls" on the other it says "not normally a sign girl, but c’mon.”
Although the slogans they carry above their heads are chuckle-inducing, Torgersen and her friend Hollie Hess are stirred by the sense of community pride that surges throughout the diverse crowd.
“We were saying that we expected this to be mostly younger people but we are pleasantly surprised with how diverse the turnout has been and it makes me proud to be from Richmond and know that I live in a community where people are so open minded,” says Hess.
Like Torgersen and Hess, many participants felt compelled to attend this event because they won’t be able to make it to the Inauguration or the Women’s March this weekend.
