Thousands of people marched in Denver on Thursday night to protest the election of Donald Trump.
Protesters, chanting and carrying signs, bemoaning the president-elect, started from the west steps of the state Capitol just after 5:30 p.m. and marched down the 16th Street Mall.
So many people marched that some chants drowned out others. Employees of businesses along the mall came out of shops and captured images of the throng as it streamed by. Some diners in restaurants along the way did the same, with some waving at protesters. Others continued with their meals.
Vehicle traffic at intersections around downtown was backed up. Most drivers remained patient, with some tooting their car horns to encourage the crowd.
The peaceful, festive march wrapped around downtown Denver, cutting over to 17th Street for a couple of blocks before crisscrossing the mall and continuing on Speer Boulevard.
Denver attorney David Lane stood on a corner of the mall, a huge smile on his face as he applauded the passers-by.
“I’m witnessing the first amendment at its best,” Lane said. “Thousands and thousands have taken to the streets to protest the election of a racist, misogynist, xenophobic man.”
Some protesters banged drums as other used bullhorns to lead the crowd in chants. Children in strollers, some on foot, and people walking dogs on leashes were part of the mobile gathering.
Some Trump supporters, who yelled and let their feeling be known, were encountered along the route. Marchers kept moving.
A reporter walking the route didn’t see any violence or vandalism, although one protester said he saw eggs being lobbed into the crowd as the marchers moved.
Two women, a daughter and mother ages 50 and 80, were part of the protest. The 80-year-old said she “survived” World War II. She declined to giver her name for this article because she was “afraid.” Her daughter also declined to be identified because: “I could be fired.”
Both said they were determined and glad to have partaken in the long march.
“I’m really unhappy we have elected a president like Trump. I don’t believe all of his lies,” the octogenarian said.
Protesters along the march stopped briefly to take photos and videos of other protesters, strangers who became momentary friends.
Kayla Styles, 25, of Denver, a student at Metropolitan State University, said she voted for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday and she caucused for Bernie Sanders earlier in the campaign.
“I’m here because I fear my rights might be taken away and my loved ones’ rights might be taken away,” Styles said. Specifically, the Denver student said she fears for the rights of the LGBTQ community, as well as for “people of color.”
“I do love this country,” she added.
After the two-hour night-time protest march wrapped up back at the Capitol, a fairly large splinter group continued on, marching to the Pepsi Center and disrupting traffic as basketball fans left the Denver Nuggets game. Those same protesters then marched to I-25, where they entered the highway and blocked traffic.
Police followed the crowd to the highway and attempted to safely remove the protesters from the interstate.
Community activists and others gathered Thursday morning in Denver at an earlier “unity” protest, a fight, they said, against bigotry and hatred. They railed against Trump — the man they say has made intolerance, racism and misogyny acceptable to much of the electorate.
“I’m just a pebble, but a pebble can be very irritating in a shoe. So let’s all be pebbles,” said Doug Good Feather, a representative of the American Indian community.
More than 100 people gathered on the steps of the Capitol during the morning rally. They came from communities angered by a presidential campaign during which Trump called for deportation of undocumented immigrants, proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country, promised to defund Planned Parenthood and bragged about groping women.
Democratic State Sen. Joe Salazar, who organized the event, told attendees that it would be longer than many such events because there were a large number of speakers. “The reason for that is that they represent communities that have been hated on by Trump.”
The state of Colorado, where Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump, “is going to show the rest of the country what it means to be tolerant,” Salazar said.
Former Colorado House Rep. Karen Middleton, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado executive director, said the organization will do all it can to protect women’s reproductive rights in the state.
The Rev. Timothy Tyler, a member of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance, said he talked to his 80-year-old mother after the election Tuesday and she was so upset by the outcome he had to convince her not to get a gun. “She thought that by this time in her life she would be done fighting this battle,” he said.
“We have the mind, and we have the will, and we have the might to fight” intolerance, Tyler said. “Donald Trump will not get the last word.”
“Bigotry is not a democratic value,” said Nita Gonzales, a community activist and president of Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios. “We will not tolerate it.”
Trump will not be able to govern with a separatist agenda, said the Rev. Del Phillips, member of the Ministerial Alliance.
“I don’t want us to lose hope because we are still united as a people. We are still black, red and brown, and we are still the United States of America.”