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WASHINGTON - U.S. civil rights activists kicked off a week of protests ahead of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration with a "We Shall Not Be Moved" march in Washington on Saturday, vowing to keep fighting for equality and justice under the upcoming administration.

Chanting "no justice, no peace," a few thousand protesters headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton marched along the National Mall toward the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, about two milesfrom the steps of the U.S. Capitol, where Trump will be sworn in as president on Friday.

Pre-march speakers denounced Trump to protesters, who braved drizzle and temperatures just above freezing to show their support for minority rights and President Barack Obama's signature health care law, which Trump has vowed to dismantle.

"We stand together, not as a people of hate, but as a people of hope," said Charley Hames Jr., president of the Oakland, California, chapter of Sharpton's National Action Network. "We believe this march is the first of many."

Trump, a New York real estate developer, won with a populist platform that included promises to build a wall along the Mexican border and restrict immigration from Muslim countries. He also promised to crack down on companies moving jobs out of the United States.

Trump's disparaging comments about immigrants and women and stance against Obama's healthcare law have drawn the anger of many on the left, who planned a series of protests.

"He's a clown," said marcher Ken Coopwood Jr., 17, of Washington. "I think he's not going to care about much, unless it's personal."

Civil rights groups including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Council of La Raza, as well as Democratic lawmakers had all said they would take part in Saturday's march.

The march began hours after Trump blasted Rep. John Lewis after the Georgia Democrat and civil rights campaigner said he did not see Trump as a legitimate president.

Lewis told NBC News in an interview for Sunday's "Meet the Press" that he believed Russia's alleged hacking aimed at helping Trump put his legitimacy into question.

Trump replied on Twitter on Saturday that Lewis should focus instead on his Atlanta district. "All talk, talk, talk - no action or results! Sad!," he wrote.

About 30 groups, almost all of them anti-Trump, have gotten permits to protest before, during and after the inauguration. Thousands of demonstrators also have vowed to shut down the inauguration, including by closing off security checkpoints along the inaugural parade route.

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Al Sharpton's We Shall Not Be Moved march in Washington draws civil rights advocates - amNY

The Rev. Al Sharpton on Sunday praised President Obama and touted his accomplishments while in office.

"I am so proud of President Barack ObamaBarack ObamaDems engage in friendly debate for DNC chair Army: Manning to lose transgender benefits Why Im leaving the Democratic Party MORE, not just because he was and is my color, but because he was America's kind," Sharpton said on MSNBC's "Politics Nation."

"He helped this country like no president I've seen in my lifetime. We should thank God we lived in the age of Obama."

Sharpton said Americans must be "concerned" about the future of the country when President-elect Donald TrumpDonald TrumpMcConnell breaks with Trump on NATO Trump makes unannounced stop at his DC hotel Rick Perry misunderstood Energy Secretary job: report MORE is inaugurated next week.

"Barack Obama, president for eight years, turned around the economy," Sharpton said.

"Took it when it was on the brink and turned around an economy that was bleeding 800,000 jobs a month."

He also cited Obama's work on criminal justice and police reform.

"He did what presidents before him failed to do," Sharpton continued. "He passed a healthcare law that was able to benefit over 20 million Americans. He also dealt with concrete steps around climate change."

On Saturday, Sharpton marched along the National Mall, launching the first of what is expected to be a series of protests leading up to Trump's inauguration.

During the event, Sharpton told Democratic lawmakers to "get some backbone."

"We've come not to appeal to Donald Trump, because he's made it clear what his policies are and what his nominations are," Sharpton said.

"We come to say to the Democrats in the Senate and in the House, and to the moderate Republicans, to get some backbone and get some guts."

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Sharpton: 'Thank God we lived in the age of Obama' | TheHill - The Hill

Niger Innis said Tuesday on The Laura Ingraham Showthat his fathers schooling of fellow civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton on national television in 1988 teaches a timeless lesson one that the African-American community should take to heart in this polarizing political and racial climate.

Innis, the executive director ofTeaPartyFwd.comand the national spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE),recalled the time his father, the late conservative civil rights leader Roy Innis, brawled with Sharpton because Sharpton wouldnt let him tell acontroversial truth.The scuffle, which occurred Aug. 9, 1988, in Harlems Apollo Theater on The Morton Downey Jr. Show, pitted Roy Innis with his unpopular convictions against Sharpton and the vocal sector of the black community.

Its like a hate crime to have a different opinion, Ingraham said.

But when you dared to disagree back then with the established black civil rights leadership even if you were Roy Innis, who had done all this work even if you were Innis, you were on the griddle. And Sharpton wanted to take him out, LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham said. This is nothing new that theres this demand for a black monolith or a Dont cooperate or dont engage at all with Republicans. This has been going on for decades and decades and decades.

The controversy surrounded the facts in the Tawana Brawley rape case in 1987-1988. When 15-year-old Brawley accused four white men of raping her, covering her in feces, and stuffing her in a trash bag with racial slurs written all over her body, the black community responded with immediate outrage. But after Innis investigated the dubious facts, he came to the conclusion that Brawleys allegations were a hoax. A grand jury ultimately concluded that Brawley hadnt been raped and had instead carried out a ruse.

"And the fact that my father was the only civil rights leader who, at the time, openly and boldly after doing an intensive investigation, including talking to Al Sharpton and many of Tawana Brawley's supporters came to the conclusion that it was a fraud, and that it was a hoax, and that it was a lie," Innis told Ingraham.

"And that more than that, it was an insult and a disgrace against the number of black women that had really been sexually abused under racial circumstances," Innis continued. "And so [my father] said so, as much, and for that, Sharpton was not going to let him tell the truth that night. And my father was not going to be stopped. And that's how that whole thing proceeded."

In fact, for most of his career, Roy Innis incurred the wrath of the monolithic, liberal black community for refusing to subscribe to its ideology and advocating for conservatism, instead. Although he served as the national chairman for CORE beginning in 1968 and spent his life advocating for black empowerment, Roy Innis endured scorn for his staunch conservatism.

"You know, I think to myself, how is this new? Look at what your dad endured. Look at what Justice Thomas endured. Look at what Tom Sowell, Walter Williams, Allen West any African-American, black American, who says, 'You know? I think for myself. I don't buy in necessarily to everything you say,'" Ingraham said. "It's like a hate crime to have a different opinion."

Ingraham and Innis both noted that the criticism against President-Elect Donald Trump's "legitimacy" leveled by civil right icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) over the weekend follows this same pattern of liberal black activistsworking to undermine and reject conservatism.

"I know that John Lewis was a hero to my dad and he is a hero to me. But, you know, just because he is a civil rights hero doesn't mean that he's always right," Innis said. "But it is the state of our politics today and it is the state of the politics that my father and the Congress of Racial Equality have fought in for 40 years."

Noting that his father, who died Jan. 8, was one of the few civil rights leaders to support President Ronald Reagan in both elections, Innis said his father faithfully supported the idea that African-Americans need "to participate in the political process fully."

"And that means that we should examine both political parties and determine [who] has the better policies and the better agenda for black Americans that there wasn't a racial partisanship that should take place, but that we should, like any other American and any other ethnic group, religious group, gender, whatever the case may be, pick the party as individuals that makes most sense for us," Innis said.

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The Time Sharpton Got Knocked on His Backside - LifeZette

NewsBusters (blog)

MSNBC's Reverend Al Sharpton Rains Praise: 'Thank God We Lived In the Age of Obama' NewsBusters (blog) Reverend Al Sharpton is back to making outlandish statements, this time, praising President Obama for his accomplishments while in office, even going so far as thanking God we lived in the age of Obama. Sharpton used his Sunday-sermon airtime on ...

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MSNBC's Reverend Al Sharpton Rains Praise: 'Thank God We Lived In the Age of Obama' - NewsBusters (blog)

Reverend Al Sharpton is the President of the National Action Network (NAN) and one of Americas most-renowned civil rights leaders. Whether it was his noteworthy run for President of the United States in 2004 or his use of passive resistance and non-violent civil disobedience, Rev. Sharpton has had an irrefutable impact on national politics because of his strong commitment to equality and progressive politics.

As the head of one of the most well-known civil rights organizations that has over forty chapters and affiliates across the United States, Rev. Sharpton has been applauded by both supporters and non-supporters for challenging the American political establishment to be inclusive to all people regardless of race, gender, class or beliefs. Ever since his surrogate father, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, told him, you cant set your sights on nothing littleyou got to go for the whole hog, Rev. Sharpton has been doing just that. He was born on October 3, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York, and began his ministry at the unusually early age of four. He preached his first sermon at that age at Washington Temple Church of God & Christ in Brooklyn where he was licensed by the legendary Bishop F. D. Washington at age nine to be a minister in that denomination. He likewise started his civil rights career very young. At age 13, he was appointed, by Reverends Jesse Jackson and William Jones, the youth director of New Yorks SCLC Operation Breadbasket (founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.). At age 16, Sharpton founded the National Youth Movement Inc. which organized young people around the country promoting voter registration, cultural awareness and job training programs.

Rev. Sharpton was educated in public schools in New York and attended Brooklyn College. He was later presented with an honorary degree from A.P. Clay Bible College. In 1991, Sharpton founded the National Action Network a broad-based, progressive civil rights organization which he still heads. From 1994 to 1998, Rev. Sharpton served as Director of the Ministers Division for the National Rainbow Push Coalition under Rev. Jesse Jackson while still serving as the head of NAN. Upon the death of Bishop Washington in the late 80s, Rev. Sharpton became a Baptist, and in 1994, he was re-baptized as a member of the Bethany Baptist Church by Rev. William Jones. Rev. Sharpton has rejuvenated the Civil Rights movement while raising the bar for political participation for people of color.

In 1999, when a young unarmed African immigrant was gunned down in the vestibule of his home by four New York City police officers, Sharpton led 1,200 people in the civil disobedience protest arrest. The throngs that followed him to jail in this protest included former mayors, congressman and religious and community leaders across racial, ethnic and political lines. Rev. Sharptons platforms against racial profiling and police brutality has reached an international audience, and his work on human rights issues has taken him to Sudan, Israel, Europe and further, where he has formed alliances with international peace activists across the world. But perhaps his most significant international visit was his sojourn to Vieques, Puerto Rico in 2001. Sharpton and three Latino elected officials from New York visited Vieques to protest the U.S. Naval bombing exercises on the island, a practice that has endured for over 60 years. After visiting with hundreds of Puerto Rican citizens who have suffered physical and mental infirmities as a result of the bombing exercises, Sharpton and the other members of the Vieques Four led the protest at the U.S. Naval Base in Puerto Rico. They were subsequently arrested, tried several weeks later and sentenced to 40 to 90 days Sharpton received the longest sentence in federal prison for their protests. While Sharpton was in jail, he fasted, losing eighty pounds, and even managing to influence the local mayoral election. Because of the stand that the Vieques Four took that summer, President George W. Bush addressed the issue and ordered the Navy to end their exercises in 2003. Rev. Sharpton is a member of Bethany Baptist Church in his native Brooklyn neighborhood where the late William A. Jones, Jr., was the Pastor. Rev. Sharpton still preaches throughout the United States and abroad on most Sundays, and averages eighty formal sermons a year.

Rev. Sharpton says his religious convictions are the basis for his life. In addition to continuing to run NAN, Rev. Sharpton hosts a talk show on Syndication One that broadcasts in 40 markets, five days a week, and he hosts Sharptalk on TV One-- a national cable show based in a barber shop setting. Rev. Al and Kathy Jordan Sharpton have two daughters, Dominique and Ashley.

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Rev. Al Sharpton | The Huffington Post