Marchers at the 2018 Women’s March in Washington D.C.

Photo by Victoria Pickering / Flickr

Saturday marks the third annual Women’s March, the national progressive movement that kicked off in 2017 in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. But this year, things will likely look a little different than they did two years ago, when hundreds of thousands of people descended upon D.C. donning pink hats and carrying signs: the movement has weathered shifts in leadership, rifts between factions, accusations of anti-Semitism, even disagreements about a name.

For District residents who want to participate, and for those who just want to make sure they can get around on yet another Saturday when people are marching on city streets, there’s lots to know. Here’s a breakdown.

Where is everything happening?

The march starts at 10 a.m. with a public gathering at Freedom Plaza, right near the White House. The march kicks off at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue NW and 13th Street NW at 11 a.m. The rally back at Freedom Plaza starts at 1 p.m. and ends at 4 p.m.

There will also be an accessible march meetup point in the plaza of the Ronald Reagan Building, at the Southwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue NW and 13th Street NW. The march route itself will only be half a mile, according to the Women’s March website.

Metro is not going to be performing an track work on Saturday to accommodate potentially larger crowds from the march. Trains on all lines will be operating on a normal schedule until 10 p.m., when they’ll start running every 20 minutes. The MARC train will also be running additional service on the Penn Line between Baltimore and D.C. on Saturday.

The District Department of Transportation will stage buses at several intersections as well.

What’s up with all the controversy around this year’s march?

Some of the leaders of the march this year have faced criticism for declining to immediately distance themselves from Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam infamous for consistently, publicly making anti-Semitic and anti-gay comments. Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez, two leading organizers, have posted photos with Farrakhan on Instagram. In hers, Mallory called Farrakhan the GOAT (greatest of all time). In February of last year, Mallory attended a Nation of Islam event where Farrakhan called out her name in her speech (a speech which included his usual anti-Semitic comments, per HuffPost). Mallory later defended her relationship with Farrakhan in an appearance on The View, saying “just because you go into a space with someone does not mean that you agree with everything they say,” and that she “should not be judged through the lens of a man.”

Because of all this, some Jewish women are publicly struggling with whether they want to attend.  The Democratic National Committee appears to have pulled out as a sponsor of the march, joining groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and EMILY’s List, along with celebrities who have historically supported the march like Alyssa Milano. The founder of the march, Alyssa Shook, wrote a Facebook status publicly calling for the co-chairs of the march (including Mallory and Perez) to step down.

There has also been contention around the name of the march. In 2017, smaller groups all over the country organized marches in their cities, and in many cases kept organizing after the march was done. Many of them have no affiliation with the Women’s March Inc., the national organization. Because of that, some local groups are trying to stop Women’s March National from trademarking the name—others aren’t sure they want to be associated with the brand anymore at all.

How many people should we expect?

In 2017, Women’s March crowds in the city were huge by every measure—about half a million people showed up to the protest in the District. That day, WMATA recorded the second-highest tally of Metro rides in the transit system’s history (it was beat out only by the day of President Barack Obama’s first inauguration): 1,001,616 trips. Last year, with the main organizers focused on a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, crowds were considerably smaller, numbering in the thousands.

Women’s March organizers applied for a National Park Service permit for more than 500,000 people, according to the Washington Post. But it’s unclear how many marchers the city can actually expect: this year’s controversies might end up affecting the head count.

Are there going to be any street closures?

Yep. Per MPD:

The following streets will be closed from 6:30 a.m. to approximately 4:00 p.m:

  • E Street, NW, from 14th Street, NW to 12th Street, NW
  • 13th Street, NW from Pennsylvania Avenue to F Street, NW
  • Pennsylvania Avenue, NW from 14th Street, NW to 15th Street, NW
  • Pennsylvania Avenue, NW from 12th Street, NW to 14th Street, NW

The following streets will additionally be closed from approximately 10:00 a.m. to approximately 3:00 p.m:

  • Pennsylvania Avenue, NW from 12th Street, NW to 9th Street, NW
  • 11th Street, NW from Pennsylvania Avenue, NW to F Street, NW
  • E Street, NW from 9th Street, NW to 14th Street, NW
  • 12th Street, NW from Constitution Avenue, NW to F Street, NW
  • (only local traffic to the Trump International Hotel permitted from Constitution Avenue, NW)

We have updated this post with information from DDOT.