On Jan. 20, Aimee Allison stood before thousands of women and supportive men in Civic Center Plaza to address the second annual Women’s March.

Allison, who is African American, is president of Democracy in Color, a national group that wants to empower minority progressive voices. She had a simple message for the enthusiastic crowd that was dotted with pink knit hats.

“Trust, follow and let black women lead — that was my message,” she recalled. “People were excited. People were cheering!”

Three days later, she was dumbstruck when a political power play that had been quietly orchestrated behind the scenes for weeks ended with acting Mayor London Breed, the first African American woman to hold the city’s top job, being removed from her post in favor of Supervisor Mark Farrell, a rich, white, male venture capitalist.

“To say I was disappointed is to understate it,” said Allison, adding that she’s committed to using her organization to make Breed’s fate a national story. “Not very many black women have ever been mayor of a major city. It was historic. To replace her in some weird deal with Mark Farrell is a slap in the face to the importance of black women.”

A slap in the face? Certainly. But it could be an unexpected boost to Breed in the June 5 election to fill the remainder of the late Mayor Ed Lee’s term. Against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement, having the most liberal members of the Board of Supervisors in one of the most liberal cities in the nation remove Breed for purely political reasons is not a good look.

Women angry over the move were not shy about sharing their opinions on Facebook and Twitter, and many of them included a link to the donation page on Breed’s campaign website. Between the vote Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, her campaign received 240 new donations and more than 100 new signups from people who want to volunteer.

“Oh, my God, it has been overwhelming,” Breed told me. “Just the support of people saying, ‘You know, I hadn’t made up my mind, but I’m determined to get you elected. I didn’t know you very well, but this is outrageous.’ People are really hurt by this. ... They are fired up, they’re motivated, they want to help, and they want to be a part of something that I think will change San Francisco for the better.”

Meena Harris is the founder of the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign, which sells T-shirts with the phrase borrowed from the famous Maya Angelou poem to benefit women’s causes. She’s also the niece of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris. She tweeted Tuesday night that she was “shocked and shaking with anger” over the vote by the supervisors, and encouraged her followers to donate to Breed’s campaign.

Christine Pelosi, a prominent Democratic strategist and daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, tweeted sarcastically, “There’s nothing a black woman does that a white man can’t do better!”

On Wednesday, Christine Pelosi told me, “My phone’s been blowing up with people asking, ‘Why did they do this to her?’... For women who run for office, every time you get someplace and you think you’ve gotten to the table, it turns out they’re making decisions in another room.”

I like most of the supervisors and candidates for mayor. I don’t know whom I’m voting for in June. I won’t decide my vote based solely on demographics, and I have yet to hear much at all about how the four major candidates would run San Francisco.

I understand the reasons for wanting to remove Breed as acting mayor. For those who’ve been living under a rock, she got the top job upon Lee’s death last month by virtue of being board president and retained her board presidency, too, under the City Charter.

Some supervisors said the same person should not lead both the executive and legislative branches. Others didn’t want Breed to have the advantage of incumbency in the mayoral race so their preferred candidate, former state Sen. Mark Leno or Supervisor Jane Kim, would have a better chance.

(Funnily enough, Breed will still appear as “acting mayor/supervisor” on the June ballot, according to the Department of Elections, because the deadline for changing the designation has passed.)

But where the supervisors lost me? Claiming that the only person in all of San Francisco who could get the votes and wanted the job of interim mayor was Farrell. That the only way to remove white, male, moneyed tech interests from having undue power at City Hall was to put a white, male, wealthy tech venture capitalist in charge. Puh-lease.

“This was not about elevating a white man,” professed Supervisor Aaron Peskin, the mastermind behind the move. “This was about sending another white man a message that he can’t corrupt our democracy and run the city from the shadows, and his name was mentioned numerous times.”

Who is this, Voldemort? No, tech mogul and multimillionaire Ron Conway, who apparently has been acting like a bull in a china shop in his quest to get Breed elected. But he’s also been a supporter of Farrell.

Farrell is an affable, smart guy who would be on the liberal end of the spectrum pretty much anywhere else. But he was one of the most conservative members of the board — and he’ll be no caretaker just making sure the lights stay on. He’ll oversee negotiations for important labor contracts, including for the Police Officers Association, which doesn’t like any of the June mayoral candidates but has long backed Farrell. He’ll get to propose a budget and fill many significant commission seats. He can get lots of name recognition and run again in 2019.

“The optics are horrendous — Mark Farrell would not have been my first choice,” acknowledged Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who gave a tearful speech about the importance of setting the city on a different path than the one she believes was created by Conway and his ilk. She said she and other supervisors tried to find a woman to take the job instead, but were rebuffed by City Administrator Naomi Kelly, former Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White and Angela Calvillo, clerk of the board.

But Ronen wholeheartedly believes she made the right decision.

“We’re a mess of a city,” she said. “The middle class can’t live here, let alone the working class. Our kids don’t have stable teachers in our public schools.”

Down the hall the day after the vote, Supervisor Jeff Sheehy looked dazed. He told an aide to forget about ordering him lunch — he was heading home early. After casting the surprise vote to put Farrell over the top, he had been escorted by a sheriff’s deputy to his office and again to the taxicab he caught home to Glen Park. He said deputies told him not to ride public transit, because his safety could be in jeopardy. He couldn’t sleep.

Sheehy claimed he was “stunned” Farrell was nominated and that he had not been offered anything in return for his vote. He repeated several times that he just found the idea of the same person being mayor and board president “weird, just weird.” He said he knows the decision could cost him his job in his tight race in June against progressive Rafael Mandelman and that he’s received plenty of irate messages from moderates angry that he cost Breed the mayor’s job.

“I’m a man without a country right now,” he said, looking lost. “The upside is the mayor’s race is wide open, and people can articulate their views in the city and the city can choose. That’s how it should be.”

Ironically, he said that come June, he’ll probably vote for Breed.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com, Twitter: @hknightsf