Scenes from ‘No Kings,’ the Greater Lafayette version
Hundreds march Saturday, joining nationwide protests of Donald Trump, Congress
Carrying a sign appropriated from artwork in online callouts for the “No Kings” rallies – hundreds scheduled across the country to protest what organizers called autocratic moves since the start of the second presidency of Donald Trump – Sarah Reeves crossed the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge, saying she felt she was getting something off her chest Saturday morning.
The demonstration calling out Trump administration actions since January wasn’t the first in Lafayette or West Lafayette. But Saturday’s was a first, this year or any other, for Reeves, who described herself as a single mom from Lafayette “keeping to myself, just trying to hang in there.”
“I’ve met people here who said the same thing, that they’ve never been to one of these things,” Reeves said. “I’ve been getting my fill getting pissed off by what I see on social media. Today is just different. It’s like I’m glad I found out, face to face, you know, that there really are a lot of us out there, mad like I am.”
Here’s a timelapse at the start of Saturday’s march.
She was among hundreds of people who filled the Margerum Fountain plaza before marching to the Tippecanoe County Courthouse and then back to West Lafayette for what organizers laid out as a community fair of music, information booths, speeches and food trucks.
Lisa Dullum, a Tippecanoe County Council member and part of Greater Lafayette Indivisible, said local groups that had been involved in other demonstrations in recent months – including MAD Voters and the Women’s March – started meeting three weeks ago, after a national day of protest was set to coincide with a military parade Saturday in Washington, D.C., that coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday.
“The upshot is we’re showing that in Lafayette we’re not happy with what’s going on at the federal level – that we don’t have kings in the U.S.A.,” Dullum said. “It’s Lafayette. It’s 2,000 protests across the country. … If you look at other countries that have had an autocratic breakthrough, what stops that is the people. We have the ultimate power in this country. And if we’re out saying that, sooner or later, they’re going to start listening to us.”
William Thomas, a retired Lafayette resident carrying sign denouncing deportations under the administration, said he predicted momentum would pick up from Saturday’s event.
“I was hoping to see this kind of crowd out,” Thomas said, comparing it to smaller rallies at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse this spring. “We all need to wise up about what we see happening, before it’s too late.”
The march took nearly an hour to make it across the pedestrian bridge, around the courthouse and back to Tapawingo Park. That accounted for organizers stopping the foot traffic so marchers went into crosswalks when they had the light. Organizers did not report problems or incidents with any sort of counter-protest.
Signs taking on Trump were everywhere.
There were a few deep cuts, too.
Among those, Hunter Butler carried “A Farewell to Kings,” a 1977 album by Rush.
“I woke up thinking about those lyrics: ‘And the men who hold high places/Must be the ones who start/To mold a new reality,’” Butler said, quoting from the album cut, “Closer to the Heart.” “And I was like, that fits today.”
At Tapawingo Park, Denise Wilson led the Blue Moon Rising choir and the crowd through a rendition of a song called “Ain’t No Kings in the U.S.A.”
Amanda Eldridge, an organizer with MAD Voters, told people that “progress is not easy,” rattling off other times of protest in the country.
“These movements and the one we’re living in would not be happening if we didn’t have the hope and belief as a nation, as a people, that we can do better, be better,” Eldridge said.
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Great and immediate coverage of what strength in numbers feels like even in small town America! So proud of our citizens!🇺🇸
It was great to feel the burst of sanity in the air. Thanks to all who organized this effort. We have to stay noisy!