Bill Glauber

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Madison — From the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to State St. in Madison, and cities across America and the world, more than 2 million people joined women's marches against President Donald Trump and his policies Saturday.

The massive show of opposition signaled that deep political divisions remain in the wake of the 2016 election.

Coming just one day after Trump's inauguration, the marches thread their way through some of the bluest, most Democratic parts of America — New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Denver and Los Angeles — and in major global cities.

"I thought a few hundred would gather at the Capitol. Look at us now!" Ophelia Bailly, one of the organizers of the Madison march told the crowd assembled at the steps of the Capitol.

Madison police estimated the crowd at between 75,000 and 100,000 people, the city's largest protest since the 2011 demonstrations against Gov. Scott Walker's controversial Act 10. The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department reported that crowds stretched a half-mile down State St., from the campus' Library Mall to the Capitol. There was a smaller demonstration in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood.

Women and men marched side by side in Madison. There were kids wheeled in strollers and seniors who were veterans of past protests. Among the slogans on the handmade signs were: "Scratch a Bully, Find a Coward" and "We've Got Mad Girl Power."

"This matters," said Samantha Drane, a social worker from Milwaukee who was with her two young sons and carried a sign that read, "Another World Is Possible."

"Welcome members of the resistance, Wisconsin division," U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) told the marchers. Pocan skipped Trump's inauguration in protest.

"I think a lot of people will leave here with sustained activism," said Chelsea Miller, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student whose Facebook post days after the election set in motion the Madison event.

Social media fueled the grass-roots effort here and elsewhere as disappointment and anger by some over the election results turned to action. Demonstrators were galvanized by a range of issues, including support of the Affordable Care Act, public schools and women's rights. Many remained upset by what they considered Trump's disparaging campaign remarks about women, minorities and immigrants.

Marchers turned pink pointy-eared hats into potent symbols to mock the president who was heard on a years-old videotape making crude remarks about women.

Teacher Alicia Wash of Beloit and Ruthie Sipher-Mann of Madison wore matching pink crocheted hats. Sipher-Mann said she purchased the yarn for the hats Thursday night and "was madly crocheting last night and through this morning."

Lana Prickette, a claims processor from Shawano who in an earlier era marched against the Vietnam War and for women's rights, said she couldn't believe she was back on the streets in protest.

"I taught my kids all the protest songs. Now, they're old. Not the songs, the kids," she said.

Prickette said she marched because of the "indecency" of electing Trump. "This is so embarrassing, so horrifying," she said.

State Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) implored the crowd to stay involved in the coming years: "Things happen if people stay on the sidelines."

"We want to make sure our voices are heard," said state Rep. JoCasta Zamarippa (D-Milwaukee). "We reject the threats he (Trump) has made against some of the most vulnerable communities."

Washington was the epicenter of the movement. Actress America Ferrera told those gathered on the National Mall: “We march today for the moral core of this nation, against which our new president is waging a war."

“Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday. But the president is not America. ...We are America, and we are here to stay," she said.

An estimated 500,000 people gathered in Washington, apparently larger than the crowd Trump drew for his swearing-in Friday and far larger than the 60,000 anti-war demonstrators who showed up in 1973 to protest the inauguration of Richard Nixon.

"This is the upside of the downside," feminist Gloria Steinem, 82, told the Washington crowd. "This is an outpouring of democracy like I’ve never seen in my very long life.”

Shortly before the Washington event began, defeated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted her thanks to participants for "standing, speaking and marching for our values."

During a profanity-laced speech in Washington, the singer Madonna said it took "this horrific moment" of Trump's inauguration to wake up the country. Alicia Keys sang "Girl on Fire" and Cher said Trump’s victory has people “more frightened maybe than they’re ever been.”

In Park City, Utah, Charlize Theron led demonstrators in a chant of “Love, not hate, makes America great.” Actresses Helen Mirren, Cynthia Nixon and Whoopi Goldberg joined the crowd of protesters in New York.

In Chicago, where 50,000 people were expected, organizers canceled the march portion of their event for safety reasons after the overflow crowd reached an estimated 150,000. Demonstrators gathered at Grant Park, where former President Barack Obama celebrated his victory in 2008.

In New York, well over 100,000 marched past Trump’s home at glittering Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. More than 100,000 also gathered on Boston Common, and a similar number demonstrated in Los Angeles.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told the crowd in Boston: “We can whimper. We can whine. Or we can fight back! We come here to stand shoulder to shoulder to make clear: We are here! We will not be silent! We will not play dead! We will fight for what we believe in!"

Around the world, protesters gathered at major sites. Tens of thousands of people poured into London's Trafalgar Square while thousands rallied in Paris in the Eiffel Tower neighborhood, where they sang and carried posters that read: "We have our eyes on you Mr. Trump" and "With our sisters in Washington." Hundreds gathered in Prague’s Wenceslas Square in freezing weather, mockingly waving portraits of Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

In Sydney, thousands of Australians gathered in solidarity in Hyde Park. One organizer said hatred, bigotry and racism are not only America’s problems.

Jacob Carpenter of the Journal Sentinel in Milwaukee, The Associated Press and USA Today contributed to this article.