On Saturday, Williams and her daughter, Debby Shadoff, who attended her first political demonstration as a child in the 1960s, took to the streets of downtown West Palm Beach to protest President Trump’s policies.
Williams said her reasons to march in 2017 haven’t changed much since the 1960s.
“My granddaughters need to have a choice on what to do with their bodies,” said Williams, a project manager and editor at a publishing company who lives in Delray Beach. “My grandkids need to have clean water and clean air.”
About 2,000 gathered outside Trump Plaza and marched 2.5 miles down Flagler Drive. Meanwhile, Trump was expected to attend the International Red Cross Ball at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, just across the Intercoastal Waterway.
There were many young people, parents with children in strollers or on their shoulders, women in hijabs and even a woman in a wheelchair.
Protesters chanted “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has to go” and “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here” in reference to Trump’s temporary travel ban on refugees into the U.S.
Some brought handmade signs reading “Deport Trump,” “Welcome refugees” and “The dark side will not take away our freedom.”
Wanda de Jesus created a sign with a clothes hanger to remind people women used drastic methods to end pregnancies before abortion became legal across the country in 1973.
“Hey hey ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” crowd chants. #TrumpProtest
She took issue with Trump’s comment during the presidential campaign that women should be penalized for getting an abortion if the procedure is banned. He later recanted his comment.
“A lot of people forget,” said de Jesus, a retired X-ray technician from Boynton Beach. “They don’t remember women were dying.”