Protesters took to the street on Wednesday evening across many US towns to protest the election of Republican Donald Trump as president-elect.
There was uneasy calm in Washington DC with police patrolling the streets and blaring sirens.
The protesters blasted Trump over the way he conducted his campaign, particularly, his statements about immigrants, Africans, Muslims and other minority groups.
Some of Trump’s campaign statements include a promise to build a wall along the border between US and Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants, and other policies they deemed racist.
They also blocked the streets and chanted “No more hate, ” and carried anti-Trump slogans: “Not my president”, “No Trump”, “No racist”, among others.
In New York, thousands of protesters filled the streets in Midtown Manhattan as they made their way to Trump Tower, while hundreds of others gathered at a Manhattan park.
In downtown Chicago, thousands more gathered outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower while chanting “No racist USA”.
Chicago police however closed roads in the area, restricting the demonstrators’ path.
Hundreds also gathered in Philadelphia and Boston on Wednesday evening, and organisers planned rallies in San Francisco, Los Angeles and California, while in Austin, the Texas capital, about 400 people marched through the streets,” the police said.
Some 1,500 California students and teachers rallied also on Wednesday in the courtyard of Berkeley High School, a San Francisco Bay Area city before marching toward the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
Hundreds of high school and college students also reportedly walked out in protest in Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Oakland, Richmond and El Cerrito, California.
A predominantly Latino group of about 300 high school students walked out of classes on Wednesday morning in Los Angeles and marched to the steps of City Hall, where they held a brief but boisterous rally.
Chanting in Spanish: “The people united will never be defeated,” the group held signs with slogans such as “Not Supporting Racism, Not My President” and “Immigrants Make America Great.”
A few miles away, students at the University of California, Berkeley protested on campus.
There had been uncertainty on Tuesday over whether Trump or rival Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would accept the outcome of the presidential election.
However, the tension-soaked atmosphere evaporated after Clinton called Trump to concede the election and congratulated him, saying she believed that he would be the next president of the U.S. after it became apparent that she had lost the Electoral College.
Trump, while also delivering his maiden speech, in an unusual humble tone, pledged to be president of all Americans as against the violent tones that had pervaded his campaigns.
“Now it’s time for Americans to bind the wounds of division and to get together,” he said.
“To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time.
“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans and this is so important to me.
“For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which they were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great party”.
Trump would be inaugurated on January 20, 2017 as the 45th American President while Vice-President-elect Mike Pence would be inaugurated as the 48th vice president.
