Sound Stories. Sound Voices.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
You are on the KUOW archive site. Click here to go to our current site.

Huge crowd for women's march buries route through Seattle

Elle Christensen watches the crowd for Seattle's women's march past her perch at Seventh and Jackson on Jan. 21.
KUOW Photo/Joshua McNichols
Elle Christensen watches the crowd for Seattle's women's march past her perch at Seventh and Jackson on Saturday.

Here's how big Saturday's women's march in Seattle was: The front reached Seattle Center (the end) before the back had left Judkins Park (the start). That's a distance of a 3.6 miles.

Tens of thousands took the route through the International District and downtown to Seattle Center.

Seattle women brought it with these sassy protest signs

“It's a great feeling. It's great to be like 'I am woman!'” said Irene Swanberg, who was marching with friends.

In the sea of people, many signs showed support of women's rights, reproductive rights. Many targeted Donald Trump.

Marcher Tracy Rekart said this allowed her to show support for her beliefs. 

“Seattle is a place that's welcoming and inclusive, I hope for everybody really, even for people who support things I don't support," Rekart said. "My goal here is to seek to understand everybody, because that's the way forward.”

Emelyn Cook, 9, said seeing so many people marching for their rights makes her hopeful.

People marched for varying reasons, but many said they were focused around supporting women's rights and opposing Trump and his incoming Cabinet.

Bri Koehler was one of those marchers.

"For me it was really personal, for me as a Muslim," she said. "I feel really afraid to leave the home ... it's enough. We can't live like this, and we shouldn't have to."

Lisa Kjaer said this is the beginning of a larger movement.

"Well that's the important thing: that we don't lose our momentum after today," she said.

Varisha Khan said it will take some work, but she hopes the momentum from Saturday can be kept alive. 

"This is a moment where we all come together, and it took a lot for us to come together. But at the same time it does take work once you leave to uphold that energy. It's going to take a lot of work to make sure that we're holding on to these bonds that we've expressed today."

Tara McDermott plans to do her part by making sure her voice is represented in D.C. 

"It's just really important to be heard, to be present, to be consistently active, to call the phone numbers for our congressional members, to stand up, have a voice."

[asset-images[{"caption": "The beginning of the Seattle womxn's march at Judkins Park on Saturday morning in Seattle. The march was packed for the length of the route, which extended 3.6 miles.", "fid": "133064", "style": "placed_wide", "uri": "public://201701/IMG_3180.jpg", "attribution": "Credit KUOW Photo/Isolde Raftery"}]][asset-images[{"caption": "Donna Dean-Wright holds a sign at the Seattle womxn's march on Saturday morning.", "fid": "133065", "style": "placed_wide", "uri": "public://201701/IMG_3143.jpg", "attribution": "Credit KUOW Photo/Isolde Raftery"}]][asset-images[{"caption": "The Fremont troll wasn't at the Seattle womxn's march on Saturday but clearly there in spirit. ", "fid": "133066", "style": "placed_wide", "uri": "public://201701/jrpussyhat.jpg", "attribution": "Credit KUOW Photo/John Ryan"}]]

[asset-images[{"caption": "Lisa Pfeiffer of Seattle conceived of this sign, Hell yes, we're ovary-reacting, at the Seattle womxn's march on Saturday.", "fid": "133067", "style": "placed_wide", "uri": "public://201701/IMG_3214.jpg", "attribution": "Credit KUOW Photo/Isolde Raftery"}]]https://youtu.be/Es25U4roHQI