No Kings protests against the actions of the Trump administration took place around Metro Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 18. Nationwide, organizers estimate seven million took part in nearly 3,000 rallies.
(Photos by Katie Burkholder)
An estimated 10,000 gathered at the Atlanta Civic Center parking lot in Old Fourth Ward on Saturday morning to hear from speakers, including Sen. Raphael Warnock and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, before a march from the Civic Center to Liberty Plaza outside the State Capitol building. The rally and march both ended peacefully, according to organizers.
Additional protests were taking place in Tucker, Decatur, Smyrna, Fayetteville, Hiram, Suwanee, Woodstock, Peachtree City, Canton, Dunwoody, and many more. In Tucker, there were “no arrests, no problems to speak of,” according to Blaine Clark, DeKalb County Police Department public information officer.
Police didn’t have an estimate on Tucker’s crowd size, but Jodi Jernigan, one of the rally’s attendees, reported that the lines of marchers filled up both sides of LaVista Road, with trucks and cars blowing their horns with support along Interstate 285.
“This is what democracy looks like—peaceful,” Jernigan, a Gwinnett County resident, told Rough Draft Atlanta. “The only thing that made me attend is my allegiance to my country and the desire for democracy and not hatred.”
(Photos by Katie Burkholder)
Saturday’s protest comes as the nation is mired in a federal government shutdown, which is dragging into its fourth week. Republicans and Democrats are at odds over a stopgap spending bill, with Democrats refusing to approve the spending without restoration of healthcare tax credits that expire at the end of the year. Democrats and healthcare advocates have been sounding the alarm that millions could lose insursnce coverage or be unable to afford it without the tax credits.
The Trump administration has also cracked down on U.S. cities, deploying National Guard troops and partaking in sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and Atlanta. Last month, 475 workers at Hyundai’s electric vehicle battery plant west of Savannah – most Korean nationals – were swept up in an ICE raid.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has been roiled by layoffs and fears over U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine beliefs.
The nation’s LGBTQ+ population has seen efforts to remove hard-won civil and human rights rolled back or threatened, including removing transgender troops from the military and concerns about the future of marriage equality.
(Photos courtesy Jodi Jernigan)
(Photos by Betty Dworschak)
