🦄 Protest & Direct Action

Hundreds of Minnesotans Protest, Take to the Streets on Trump’s Inauguration

By Unicorn Riot

Minneapolis, MN – On January 20th, 2017, multiple actions took place in protest of Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day, which included an early morning strike, a student walkout, three adjoining marches, a nighttime rally at the government center, and a breakaway march led by the Queer Black Bloc.

Starting at six in the morning at Home Depot in Northeast Minneapolis, janitors formed a picket line in a strike action.

Unicorn Riot was live to document this early morning action.

Home Depot and its cleaning contractor were targeted for the first strike in the country since Donald Trump won the election because the founders were major Trump supporters and to protest “poverty wages and Donald Trump’s anti-worker agenda“.

“The two founders of Home Depot have donated millions of dollars to Trump and one of Home Depot’s major investors supports Trump. Home Depot uses the Trump model of business for its janitorial services: using subcontractors that hire immigrant workers and sometimes face lawsuits for wage theft.” – Facebook event page

To watch the full Home Depot strike livestream, see below:

In the early afternoon, students walked out of classes from the University of Minnesota, Augsburg University, other colleges, and high schools and met up with several marches on the southside of Minneapolis.

The students wanted to “send a clear message to Trump, the billionaire class, and the Republican Party that we reject their agenda of bigotry, hate, and division; that we reject their corporate policies to gut our social services and education.”

At 2 p.m. CST, a large anti-Trump march gathered at Nicollet Ave. and Lake St. to march to Nicollet and Franklin Avenues to meet up with the Black Snake Resistance march that started at Chicago and Franklin Avenues.

Unicorn Riot was live for the Black Snake Resistance march and the ensuing actions that occurred through the evening. The Black Snake Resistance march was organized to show solidarity with the water protectors who have gathered in resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline.


To watch the Black Snake Resistance march, see the videos below:

When the marches converged with each other, an effigy of Donald Trump was burned in the middle of Franklin and Nicollet Avenues.


Nearly 1,000 people packed Nicollet Avenue and marched into downtown Minneapolis led by a parade truck and parade marshals.


After orange vested marshals directed the tightly controlled march to the government center on 5th Street, a large rally featuring many speakers took place.

Protestors Stand Across the Street from City Hall

As the crowd milled around, some burned signs and more Trump effigies, and a dozen or so people dressed in all-black made up the Queer Black Bloc. They maneuvered themselves to the light-rail tracks on 5th Street.


Under plumes of colored smoke from smoke canisters and fireworks, the group set off on a breakaway march. The first stop of the march was the Juvenile Detention Center (JDC), where incarcerated youths from Hennepin County, primarily Minneapolis, are housed, mostly temporarily, as they may be waiting on court or a different out-of-home placement.

A brief noise demo, similar to ones in the recent past, took place in the back of the JDC building. Visible through the windows were incarcerated youth who were able to see fireworks lit off on their behalf and hear chants of “burn all the jails, burn all the prisons, just make sure the cops are in ’em”.


The group made its way past Wells Fargo corporate offices and in the wake of the group, Wells Fargo signs had holes kicked through them. This same Wells Fargo was targeted on December 1st, with a divest from DAPL action.

Wells Fargo Sign Destroyed Outside of Corporate Building in Minneapolis

The breakaway march eventually went back to the government center where a long list of speakers pressed the community to continue to show up.

To watch the livestreams from the evening of Friday, January 20th, see below – for stream of the breakaway march tune into the 34:40 mark of the video directly below:

To see our coverage from Minneapolis after the election, see here, and watch the video below:

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Categories: Protest & Direct Action
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Published January 24, 2017
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