Thousands turn out for Athens area No Kings protest
- Classic City News
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
The following was released by Indivisible District 10
Nearly 4,000 people joined the third national “No Kings” action on Saturday in Athens and nearby counties, joining the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.
The 4,000 local protestors joined an estimated 8 million Americans who poured into the streets across America on March 28 to speak out against the Trump administration’s authoritarian overreach and its threat to the America’s democratic institutions.
Indivisible, a national non-profit, non-partisan organization that took a lead role in organizing the nationwide action, reported that “No Kings” events were held at more than 3,300 separate locations in all 50 states. “No Kings” rallies were also held in more than a dozen other countries including in Europe, Australia and Latin America.
“It’s not something that you read about every day, but there is outrage across the United States for what is being done by Trump and MAGA to our communities, to our country and to the world,” said Rick Burt, co-leader of IndivisibleGA10 (IGD10). “But today we are grabbing the headlines to speak out and to say “No” to the cruelty, the corruption, and to the stupidity we are witnessing in Washington.”
IGD10 organized No Kings protests at eight locations in Athens-Clarke and Oconee Counties, and two more in Greensboro and Madison. The non-partisan group of IGD10 volunteers is affiliated with the national Indivisible organization, workingacross the 20 counties that are part of Georgia’s 10thCongressional District.
The theme of the IGD10 protests in the Athens area was “No Kings. Just Us. Everywhere.” Organizers said the theme emphasized the American public’s rising opposition to the Trump administration and concerns that the institutions ofAmerican democracy are crumbling.
“The federal government has failed us at every level. It’s not just the president. Congress has failed. Often the courts have failed,” said Phil Gilbertson, an Oconee County resident, who attended the protest held on Main Street in Watkinsville, Oconee County.“We the People, finally, have to rescue democracy. There are a thousand different ways of doing that, but this is one.”
Participants at local “No Kings” events held signs criticizing the rising costs of food, fuel, housing and healthcare; the murder and detention of American citizens by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the arrests and deportation of tourists and immigrants, the refusal to release all of the Epstein files, and America’s undeclared wars on Venezuela and Iran, among many other issues.
“I am so utterly disappointed in the direction the United States is going in the present administration, and I think it is humiliating the role that we are is playing in the world,” said Carol Hamilton, who showed up to the protest in Greensboro with a sign reading “Democracy dies when good people stay silent.”
IGD10’s “No Kings” rallies were dispersed around the Athens area because the annual music festival “Jam in the Streets” already had been scheduled in downtown Athens, and no otherpublic area was available that could handle the expected number of protestors.
The number of participants across the district was tallied by giving each protestor a “No Kings” sticker. At total of 3,858 stickers were distributed across the 10 locations. The largest turnout was at Bishop Park, with more than 900 counted, followed by the Prince Avenue Overpass, with 572 stickers distributed, and the East side of Athens along Gaines School Road, with 491. Greensboro had 343 participants. Madison recorded 275 and Oconee County had 232.
Organizers noted there were far more young people and families at the Athens “No Kings 3” protests than at earlier events, and many participants told the official greeters who handed out the “No Kings” stickers that they were joining a protest for the first time.
Despite the deep concerns expressed by participants, the peaceful events were lighthearted in tone, with funny signs and T-shirts, inflatable costumes, music and chants, and a parade of decorated cars that drove around Athens visiting all of the local protest sites. Across the district, motorists driving past the individual protest sites honked and waved in support of the sign-waving protestors lining the streets.
Following the dispersed protest, participants gathered at Bishop Park for a “Democracy Fair” that included speakers, music, protest art, and tables set up by different community organizations and political groups offering information and volunteer opportunities.
Speakers, however, reminded the crowd that “No Kings 3” was not just a protest, but also a call to action.
“When they tell you to fear your neighbor, look again. When they tell you to hate your neighbor, look again. When they tell you that some people don’t belong, look again. Because the same God who created you, created them,” Chaplain Cole Knapper, an Athens native, U.S. Army combat veteran and ordained interfaith chaplain, told the crowd at Bishop Park. “Today we choose dignity. Today we choose truth. Today we choose each other. And if anybody asks you what happened in Athens, Georgia, today, you tell them this: You tell them that we saw what was happening and we refused to look away.”