Thousands of demonstrators proceeded with plans to traverse the streets of downtown Chicago on Saturday despite organizers’ announcement that a march was canceled, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Organizers told protesters around 11 a.m. that they were scrapping the march itself, because the crowd had blocked the planned routes.
Our march route is flooded. There is no safe way to march. We are just going to sing and dance and make our voices heard here,” rally and march co-chairwoman Ann Scholhmer told demonstrators.
{mosads}But some marchers said they did not hear of the cancellation, while others decided to simply do it anyway.
The Chicago women’s march – one of more than 600 similar marches and protests across the world – was originally set to host a gathering of about 22,000. But that estimate soon grew to 50,000. The march eventually attracted an estimated 250,000, according to the Tribune.
In Washington, attendance for a march that sought space for about 200,000 ballooned to more than half a million, according to organizers, flooding streets and congesting planned march routes.
Millions of people turned out on Saturday to protest the inauguration of President Trump and show support for women’s rights and civil rights issues that many fear could come under attack by the new administration.