Protesters gathered with American flags and handmade signs to sing songs, listen to community leaders speak and share messages they feel reflect current political issues at the third “No Kings Day” protest. This month’s was the largest single-day protest in American history with over 8 million participants nationwide.
Indivisible MHK, a progressive group based in Manhattan, organized the protest, which had over 1,000 participants this month. The event began with a rally at city park, followed by a street-side protest along Poyntz Avenue.
Philip Nel, a board member of Indivisible MHK, American scholar of children’s literature and Kansas State English professor, feels a protest like “No Kings 3” empowers people by bringing them together.
“People will say, ‘Why protest, what is that going to solve?’” Nel said. “Well, a single protest does not solve it, it’s part of a broader strategy … showing people in your community and across the country that they are not alone. There’s one tactic of authoritarians and authoritarian wannabees: to make you feel like you’re alone, that you’re powerless, that there’s nothing you can do. But we are not powerless. The power of the people is stronger than the people in power, and we see that when we turn up to an event like this and we see other people, we realize that we’re not alone.”
“We say that we don’t consent to wars on a whim, we don’t consent to fellow citizens being gunned down on the streets by ICE, or people being abducted and disappeared by ICE.”
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A protest helps demonstrate that we are committed. We are committed to restoring democracy, we are committed to our community and we’re in for the fight.
— Philip Nel, a board member of Indivisible MHK, American scholar of children’s literature and Kansas State English professor
Some believe the mass amount of protesters that participated in ‘No Kings 3’ across the country and in Kansas communicated another message — that loving and caring for your neighbors is a part of being American.
“The spirit of ‘No Kings’ has been growing month after month as we build up this momentum, and it shows that people are realizing nothing is working better than it was 6 months ago,” Colin McRoberts, candidate for U.S. House Kansas District 1, said. “They’re seeing the failure and seeing the disasters, and even people who voted for Donald Trump or for Tracey Mann are now looking at tariffs and the war in Iran and realizing this isn’t how things are supposed to be, but there is an answer. The answer is their neighbors, and the answer is voting for candidates instead of parties who see that something is broken and want to fix it. This is a reminder that this is what Americans do, it’s what we should do, make that joyful noise because we care.”
Rev. Margaret McGhee gave a closing speech for the rally portion of the protest, where she emphasized the importance of caring for our neighbors and called on the community to resist allowing cruelty to start to feel normal.
“Here is what I want you to see; look around this park, this is power,” McGhee said. “You’re not watching from the sidelines, you’re here … your neighbors are here. Kansas has been here before; this state was founded by people who believed that human freedom was more important than their personal comfort.”
Some protesters, such as participant Kathy Lillich, expressed a need for Americans to reevaluate what this country stands for and should represent.
“We have to decide on what we stand for as Americans,” Lillich said. “Are we okay with watching all of our systems of government just being torn down bit by bit and having no kind of pushback and no kind of change? If we don’t start speaking up now, there’s gonna be a time when we can’t, when it could be too dangerous… This is the time to do it.”
Protesters line the street with signs and an American flag during the “No Kings” protest in Manhattan, Kansas, on March 28.