Photos by Ty O’Neil
The streets of downtown were filled on Saturday with supporters for the 2020 Women’s March, now an international effort in its fourth year. The main march event started off at a little bit after 11 a.m. at Reno City Plaza behind the famous BELIEVE sculpture.
Indigenous women led the march with a banner labeled “Protecting the Sacred, Let Newe Sogobia Heal.” The Western Shoshone refer to themselves as Newe, “The People,” and they call their ancestral lands as Newe Sogobia, or “The People’s Land.”
Marchers waved signs and yelled chants ranging from support for their presidential candidate of choice to outward displays of disdain toward President Donald Trump.
The march went from Reno City Plaza north up Virginia Street and then headed a east on 4th Street into the front doors of the Reno Events Center.
When attendees and marchers arrived at the Reno Events Center, they found a different scene. There were tables, booths and displays set up for numerous nonprofits in the community. As people entered the main events center they were faced numerous political candidates and supporters from local, county and national campaigns.
The second half of the day carried on at the events center. The program started with video messages from U.S. Senators Cortez-Masto (D-NV) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV). Then came a speech from Assemblywoman and Majority Leader Teresa Benitez-Thompson (D-Reno).
“For me, it’s a moment to take a victory lap and say we did it,” Benitez-Thompson told This Is Reno. “You did it actually. You elected the first female majority in the history of the United States. We have no fear. We’re going to elect women. We’re going to elect women of color, we are going to put them in positions of leadership, [and] we are going to have at it. Phenomenal things will come from that.”
Community leaders and those supporting political candidates spoke to the crowd of hundreds.
The events ended around 3:45 p.m. with Washoe County School District Trustee Angie Taylor. She closed with an enthusiastic speech about the coming months of electioneering.
“We are not finished, yet,” she said.
About 4,000 attended the event, according to organizers.
