ATLANTA, Ga. – An estimated 60,000 demonstrators amassed in downtown Atlanta on Saturday as part of the Atlanta March for Social Justice and Women. And among the thousands were individual people with their own reasons to take to the streets.
It didn't matter the beat of their drum, the Atlanta March for Social Justice and Women welcomed everyone. With Rep. John Lewis at the front.
"I marched in Nashville, I marched in Washington, I marched from Selma to Montgomery," he said. "I'm ready to march again."
Lewis and Hank Johnson, two members of Atlanta's congressional delegation, were joined by former mayor Shirley Franklin
The march began at the Center for Civil and Human Rights, proceeded through Centennial Park, passed Philips Arena and the Georgia Dome, and onto the state capital - stretching mroe than a mile.
"I'm here because we need equality," one participant said. "Because we deserve the same rights as everyone else."
It was billed as a women's march, but you could easily find just as many men as women.
"Equality is the most important thing in AMerica," one marcher said. "We are the home of the free and the brave. We have to support the things that challenge our equality as human beings and personal and interpersonal things."
Marchers said this stood in directo opposition to Donald Trump's inauguration 24 hours earlier. This led to bystanders coming to hear their message.
"I just wanted to, after all the coverage yesterday, wanted to see the other viewpoint," an attendee told 11Alive.
Amongst the marchers, some came for social issues while others focused on environmental concerns. They fear that environmental issues will be handled differently over the next 4 years.
"One thing I feel imminently threatened by is climate change," said one concerned marcher. "And failure to accept the science that tells us it is here."
But at the heart of the march, everyone had their own story - their own reason for showing up - with most of them circling back to equality.
"It doesn't matter: tall, short, black, white, yellow, green - we are all put here together," one said. "We are supposed to be loving our neighbor. Inequality is not love."
More than 500,000 demonstrators attended a national march in Washington, DC.
