Rev. Al Sharpton announced that he is organizing a rally in Washington on Jan. 20, coinciding with both the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump and the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday.
The outspoken Trump critic announced the rally on MSNBC earlier this week.
“While Trump supporters will be on one side of Washington watching him take the oath of office, I will be at the nation’s capital working to keep the dream alive,” Sharpton said. “There has never been a more important time to peacefully organize and mobilize.”
In 2017, the largest anti-Trump rallies in Washington were held one day after his inauguration. Among them was the Women’s March, which garnered thousands of protesters. Sharpton was among those who participated at an affiliated rally in New York.
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On the same day as the Women’s March, White House press secretary Sean Spicer called a news conference to falsely claim that Trump’s inauguration was the most attended inauguration ever. Photo evidence showed the crowds for his rally were much smaller than President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, for instance.
The day and location of Sharpton's rally also carries symbolism beyond Trump’s swearing in. Sharpton noted that the rally will be held in the same vicinity as King’s I Have a Dream speech.
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