On January 21, approximately ten thousand people from all over Montana gathered at the Capitol building to celebrate equal rights for all American citizens. The March on Montana was one of over 670 “sister” marches coinciding with the Women’s March on Washington in Washington, D.C.  Every state in the U.S. hosted a women’s march and over 200 “sister” marches took place outside of the U.S. According to the official Women’s March on Washington webpage, nearly five million people around the world participated in a women’s march.

The Women’s March on Washington began as a grassroots movement. According to the march’s mission statement, marchers wanted to “send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights.”

In a statement to Char-Koosta News, Women’s March on Montana organizer and Missoula resident Rebecca Weston said, “My reaction to the march was that it was a euphoric moment to see, in action, what I had hoped and believed to be true. That Donald Trump did not have a mandate on hatred and division; that millions around the world and thousands in Montana did not support his racist, sexist and anti-immigrant rhetoric.”

When ten thousand people arrived at the Capitol building in Helena, Montana, they might not have known it at the time, but they were becoming a part of history. In a statement to Vox, Erica Chenoweth, an expert on issues of political violence and civil resistance, said, “Even using a conservative estimate, it was the single largest day for a demonstration in the US.”