Hundreds of people gathered in Black Lives Matter Plaza for the second night in a row as the region and the rest of the country awaits the results of the presidential election.

The evening was quieter than Tuesday, when crowds converged on Black Lives Matter Plaza and nearby McPherson Square to watch election results. Demonstrations on both nights remained largely conflict-free, aside from a few clashes with police and four arrests on Tuesday.

Protesters who want President Trump out of office danced to music and created art near the White House on Wednesday. They held signs  that declared “Trump is a danger to us all” and “Count the votes.”

Twenty-year-old Grace McLean watched CNN relay election results from a large screen at McPherson Square. She hoped being outside would calm her frayed nerves.

McLean, a Howard University student, fears a conservative Supreme Court and four more years of a Trump presidency could jeopardize gay marriage and women’s reproductive health rights.

She said she was too nervous to follow election results out of her home state of Michigan. She breathed a sigh of relief when she learned from friends that the state swung in Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s favor.

“I wanted to come out here to soothe my anxieties,” she said. “I’ve definitely seen a lot of hate in the last four years, so I just hope we can have people in office, in positions of power, that don’t allow that.”

Bethelehem Yirga, co-founder of the Palm Collective, a Black-led organization working to build a coalition of grassroots organizations in the D.C. region, led an art workshop and handed out food to passersby in front of the AFL-CIO building downtown.

Yirga, who was a teacher and principal for a decade, said she left the profession to organize after George Floyd’s killing this summer.

“I am honored to be out here representing Black and Brown students who are for so long fought for in the classrooms and in the school buildings, doing it on the streets and being a part of communities that are fighting for real change no matter who wins,” she said.

Yirga said that her group and other grassroots organizations wanted to create spaces for community, particularly as the region and the nation anxiously await the results of this year’s contentious presidential election.

“…We’re all anxious. We’re all concerned. We’re all afraid. Let’s come together in community. Let’s do some positive stuff and wait it out together and know that even to and through this election, we’re still going to be together to be able to continue to fight for the injustices that are still out and not being focused on or solved,” she said.

Muhammad Afridi sat on a sidewalk near the White House with his wife and four sons, jubilant after Biden won Michigan and pulled ahead in Arizona.

He said he brought his sons to Black Lives Matter Plaza so they could witness camaraderie between diverse groups of people. It was the most relaxed Afridi said he has felt in D.C. since Trump became president.

Afridi, who is Muslim, said he and his family have lived in fear because the Trump administration has sown hostility toward people of color and certain ethnic groups. The Trump administration has banned nearly all travelers or immigrants from five majority-Muslim countries, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Somalia, in addition to North Korea and Venezuela. Critics of the ban have pointed to Trump’s many negative remarks about Islam as proof of bias.

“We are here to tell Biden, ‘sir, we are so happy that you are here,’” Afridi said of the former vice president. “For the last four years, we’ve felt very unsafe in this country because of Trump.”

As Afridi spoke, his 7-year-old son, Abdullah interjected.

“We are looking for peace, not terror,” the boy said.