Over 1,000 UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College students and community members convened on Pacific Avenue to protest the election of Donald Trump as president.
A smaller group of UCSC students met on campus at 4 p.m. As more marchers joined, the group moved through the West Entrance and marched down to the city’s clock tower on Water and Front Street around 6 p.m. where an LGBTQIA+-oriented rally was already taking place.
The group briefly blocked southbound Mission Street as they made their way to Pacific Avenue and Church Street to join the rally. Downtown, they blocked the intersection and began to chant. Some expressed anger and fear of the new presidential nomination into the Freedom Truck’s microphone.
“Who built this country? My beautiful brown and tan people,” one protester said into the microphone and was met with a roar of cheers and applause. 
Protesters, mostly young people of color and those who identified as LGBTQIA+, shared their testimonies and fears and demanded the city of Santa Cruz take action.
“I want a president who has gone to welfare. I want a president who knows what it is like to love the same sex,” another protester said. “Goddammit, I want a president that believes that lives are in danger.”
The demonstration has been peaceful with no police presence, and has dwindled to a few hundred who are gathered sharing personal stories as of 8 p.m.
City on a Hill Press will continue to update this story as it develops.
*Additional reporting by Kathryn Palmer
