Sarah-Beth Hopton, left and Jessie Blackburn, members of the English faculty at Appalachian State, rode the Metro hours before the march with five of their colleagues. They are concerned about the environment, climate change, and social justice.
Members of the Seven Sisters colleges expanded the group to 12 sisters after they invited people from Agnes Scott, Cottey, Hollins, and Sweet Briar Colleges, as well as from Mary Baldwin U., to join them. Participants wore sashes as a nod to the suffragette movement, and each institution had a designated color.
Among the men who supported the march was Noah Dyson, 17, of Washington, D.C., a senior at the School Without Walls. He has his sights set on Morehouse, Harvard, or Elon.
Marchers’ concerns ranged from climate change to violence against women to the safety of immigrants and minorities ― the same issues that consume universities and colleges across the country. They came together in unity to put Washington on notice that they want their values represented.
Kate Collins, a student at the University of Maryland, marched with others studying to be physicists. Later in the march, in a moment between group chants, a woman exclaimed in disbelief, “What kind of person brings out people to have to say, ‘Yeah science!’”
Representing the Bangladeshi American Women’s Development Initiative were, from left, Meha Patel, Sadia Chowdhury (Fordham ’19), Farahzebin Chowdhury (Montclair State ’16), Tania Chowdhury (NYU doctoral student in counseling psychology), Amrita Ramakrishnan (NYU counseling psychology doctoral student), and Nasrin Younus (Montclair State ’17).
There is no mistaking the opinion of this protester against the education-secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos. (Ms. DeVos commented at her hearing that guns may be needed in rural schools to protect students from grizzly bears.)
About 30 Georgia State U. students filled two buses to attend the march. Zariyah Bailey, a freshman (left), was joined by Thomisha Wallace (center) and Chantel Rhodes (right). Voicing her support for the Black Lives Matters movement and women’s rights, Ms. Wallace she also had concerns about the Electoral College.
