“Trust black women!”

“Who do you serve? Who do you protect?”

“Puerto Rico is part of America!”

“Mr. President, don’t be a dick. We like Colin Kaepernick!”

On Saturday, chants rang out as thousands flooded the streets in Washington, D.C. and rallied at 15 sister marches across the country, demanding an end to race-based discrimination and violence. The two separate but closely-coordinated events, the March for Black Women (M4BW) and the March for Racial Justice (M4RJ) started at parks near the Capitol before converging to march together to the Department of Justice before descending on the mall for a rally.

The M4RJ was organized by a coalition of racial justice activists and organizations in response to the fatal police shooting of Philando Castile, an unarmed black Minnesota man whose girlfriend streamed the aftermath on Facebook. Since then, racial incidents have continued to dominate the national debate, including the Charlottesville terrorist attack and Colin Kaepernick’s protest of systemic racism and police shootings of young black men—a topic recently revived by Trump’s slew of derogatory tweets aimed at the NFL and at outspoken black athletes.

“After the horrifying recent events in Charlottesville, we understand more than ever the need for unity against those who hate,” said Maurice Cook, co-chair of the march and founder of D.C.-based education nonprofit Serve Your City, in release. “When an unarmed black man can be shot for being suspected of violence, but a Confederate flag wielding driver of a vehicle used as a murder weapon can be read his rights, we must rally together in defense of humanity and civil rights.”

The March for Black Women, organized by a coalition of local and national activists including BYP100, the Black Women’s Blueprint, and the Trans Sistas of Color Project, was intentionally separate. Organizers wanted to center those statistically and historically most marginalized by racism because of bigotry related to their gender identity or sexual orientation, whose voices have to be louder to be heard.

“Contrary to popular belief, Black Lives Matter was created for black women—and for all black lives,” said Black Lives Matter cofounder Opal Tometi to the hundreds of women gathered at Seward Square. She continued, “Justice is possible, but it is not inevitable.”

According to their website, the M4BW was held to “denounce the propagation of state-violence and the widespread incarceration of Black women and girls, rape and all sexualized violence, the murders and brutalization of transwomen and the disappearances of our girls from our streets, our schools and our homes.”

Organizers cited the 10 local girls that went missing in March, which sparked a national discussion about the role of race in publicizing missing persons cases.

Speakers set themselves apart from the Women’s March, which was criticized for focusing too much on the activism of white women.

“Look around, look at the ways you black women show up to a march,” writer Michaela Angela Davis told the crowd. “Braids, Afro-pops — y’all can’t fit that under a pink hat.”

As the groups merged to march down to the Mall, trans and black women were at the helm, leading the striding mass that stretched for more than 20 minutes. Protesters stopped at the Department of Justice to hold up images of black men and women killed by police and say each of their names aloud.

“I believe in the power of black women,” said Theresa Younger, head of the Ms. Foundation. “We are making a statement that it is past time to value, protect, and respect the lives of black women and girls in this country.”

Numerous speakers and marchers referenced the ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico, where the population is going into their second week post Hurricane Maria without adequate clean water, food, or electricity. Many pointed out echoes of post-Katrina New Orleans in Trump’s choice to go golfing last weekend and to attack the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital on Twitter when she begged for more aid.

“I’m getting personal SOS’s from people who are fans of my work [saying] ‘help me!”’said Puerto Rican poet and activist María Teresa “Mariposa” Fernández in a voice torn with emotion. “There are ships waiting to port. We need all of you to tell the Feds, FIMA, this administration—agua!”

Speakers at the mass rally included Philando Castile’s mother Valarie, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, actress and producer Gina Belafonte, Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour, and D.C. pastor, activist and Terrence Sterling representative Steven Douglass. M4RJ’s demands included that Confederate monuments be removed, a greater focus on indigenous cultures, colonialism and slavery in textbooks, and more rigorous investigations into hate crimes.

“It’s now an Injustice Department,” said Markus Batchelor, D.C.’s State Board of Education member representing Ward 8, according to the New York Times. “We’re here because there are concerted efforts to deprive minorities of their rights. Under this president, the Justice Department has become a mechanism to make injustice the law of the land — and that’s dangerous.”

On this date, October 30th in 1919, a deadly three-day racial confrontation began known as the Elaine Massacre or the Elaine Race Riot. When black workers organized to pursue fairer wages on white-owned plantations near Elaine, Arkansas, a mob of white residents and law enforcement killed about 200 black men and women. The march was a nod to the fallen.

Unfortunately the event also coincided with Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish holidays, celebrated by giving and accepting forgiveness as well as fasting and prayer. March organizers apologized for the oversight and pledged to strengthen ties between the groups. Many Jewish marchers showed out anyway with signs reading, “This Yom Kippur I pray with my feet.”

Marchers finished out the day with a candlelight vigil near the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.

“I want to remind everyone that black trans women are not a drop in the bucket of this movement, we are the bucket,” said HIV activist and M4BW co-organizer Bré Anne Campbell. “Until we overflow our movement will never be able to move. We’ll be stagnant, and we’ll continue to leave people behind.”