The raw divisions exposed by the presidential race were on full display across America on Wednesday, as protesters flooded city streets to condemn Donald Trump’s election in demonstrations that police said were mostly peaceful.
From New England to heartland cities like Kansas City and along the West Coast, many thousands of demonstrators carried flags and anti-Trump signs, disrupting traffic and declaring that they refused to accept Trump’s triumph.
In Chicago, where thousands had recently poured into the streets to celebrate the Chicago Cubs’ first World Series victory in over a century, several thousand people marched through the Loop. They gathered outside Trump Tower, chanting “Not my president!”
Chicago resident Michael Burke said he believes the president-elect will “divide the country and stir up hatred.” He added there was a constitutional duty not to accept that outcome.
A similar protest in Manhattan drew about 1,000 people. Outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in midtown, police installed barricades to keep the demonstrators at bay.
Hundreds of protesters gathered near Philadelphia’s City Hall despite chilly, wet weather. Participants—who included both supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who lost to Clinton in the primary—expressed anger at both Republicans and Democrats over the election’s outcome.
In Boston, thousands of anti-Trump protesters streamed through downtown, chanting “Trump’s a racist” and carrying signs that said “Impeach Trump” and “Abolish Electoral College.” Clinton appears to be on pace to win the popular vote, despite losing the electoral count that decides the presidential race.
The protesters gathered on Boston Common before marching toward the Massachusetts Statehouse, with beefed-up security including extra police officers.
A protest that began at the Minnesota State Capitol Tuesday night with about 100 people swelled at is moved into downtown St. Paul, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Protesters blocked downtown streets and traveled west on University Avenue where they shouted expletives about Trump in English and Spanish.
There were other Midwest protest marches in Omaha, Neb., and Kansas City, Mo.
In Des Moines, Iowa, hundreds of students walked out of area high schools at 10:30 a.m. To protest Trump’s victory, the Des Moines Register reported. The protests, which were coordinated on social media, lasted 15 to 45 minutes.
Marchers protesting Trump’s election chanted and carried signs in front of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Media outlets broadcast video Wednesday night showing a peaceful crowd in front of the new downtown hotel. Many chanted “No racist USA, no Trump, no KKK.”
Another group stood outside the White House. They held candles, listened to speeches, and sang songs.
Dallas activists gathered by the dozens outside the city’s sports arena, the American Airlines Center.
In Oregon, dozens of people blocked traffic in downtown Portland, burned American flags, and forced a delay for trains on two light-rail lines. Earlier, the protest in downtown drew several Trump supporters, who taunted the demonstrators with signs. A lone Trump supporter was chased across Pioneer Courthouse Square and hit in the back with a skateboard before others intervened.
Several thousand chanting, sign-waving people gathered in Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, Calif. A night earlier, in the hours after Trump won the election, Oakland demonstrators broke windows and did other damage.
In San Francisco, hundreds are marching along Market Avenue, one of the city’s main avenues, to join a vigil in the Castro District, a predominantly gay neighborhood.
In Los Angeles, protesters on the steps of City Hall burned a giant papier mache Trump head in protest, later, in the streets they whacked a Trump piñata.
Hundreds massed in downtown Seattle streets.
Many held anti-Trump and Black Lives Matter signs and chanted slogans, including “Misogyny has to go,” and “The people united, will never be defeated.”
Five people were shot and injured in an area near the protest, but police said the shootings and the demonstration were unrelated.
Back in New York, several groups of protesters caused massive gridlock as police mobilized to contain them under a light rain.
They held signs that read “Trump Makes America Hate” and chanted “hey, hey, ho, ho Donald Trump has got to go.” And “Impeach Trump.”