From all walks of life

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore.

Donald Trump says the thousands of men and women taking to the streets to protest his election are “professional protesters incited by the media.” But who are they really? The answer varies from state to state. The crowds include high school students, immigrants and even anarchists.

“There’s no professional protesters here,” said Jennie Luna, a 40-year-old professor of Chicano studies at California State University-Channel Islands, just north of Los Angeles.

The day after the election, she organized what she calls a “self-care circle of courage” on campus for students who needed an outlet for their distress over Trump’s win. The event morphed into a rally and march that lasted several hours.

“I am fearful for what will happen to the undocumented, I’m fearful of losing my reproductive rights,” she said. “And I’m fearful of the unknown.”

America’s new president has made many promises about changes to “make America great again,” such as undoing some regulations on companies, for example.

He has also made pronouncements that have struck fear within certain groups of Americans – women, Latinos, people with disabilities and racial minorities, among them. The protests that have spread across the nation are against Trump, but more pointedly, they are expressions of concern about how personal lives could change.

Isadora Clemente Zurie, 21, was among those at a Thursday night protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, riding in her wheelchair with the crowd.

“I’m disabled and I’m LGBT. I’ve been bullied all my life” she told The Salt Lake Tribune. “Now I’m in a world where for just being me, I could lose my entire life.”

College students whose parents moved to the United States illegally are worried that Trump will follow through with his threat to rescind President Obama’s executive order that protects young immigrants from deportation.

At a Thursday-night protest in Philadelphia, 23-year-old Jeanine Feito held a sign that read “Not 1 More Deportation.”

Protest organizers are using a tool that Trump made such effective use of – social media. Tweets and Face-book posts have called people to protests across the country. Trump’s election spawned a popular new hashtag: “NotMyPresident.”

Some of the protests are occurring in cities with a history of political activism such as Portland.

The spirited demonstrations on college campuses and along downtown streets were mostly peaceful Friday after previous outbreaks of window-smashing and fire-setting.

Friday evening marches disrupted traffic in Miami and Atlanta while organizers said people gathered on Boston Common in what was billed as a rally for peace and love.

In Tennessee, Vanderbilt University students sang civil-rights songs and marched through campus across a Nashville street, temporarily blocking traffic. A protest also occurred in Minneapolis.

Demonstrations were planned today in Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and other areas.