Nashville and surrounding counties will be participating in a nationwide movement Saturday, protesting President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The first ‘No Kings’ protests started as a response to a military parade held on Trump’s birthday in Washington D.C. This weekend’s protest aims to protest cuts to Medicaid and the deployment of the National Guard to several cities across America, including Memphis.
U.S. House Republicans have decried the protests as violent and anti-American.
Nashville’s first No Kings protest drew roughly 10,000 people. The June event resulted in one arrest of a counter-protester, who attendees say argued and spat at people before pulling a gun. The counter-protester, Elijah Millar of Murfreesboro, was charged with disorderly conduct, according to Nashville police.
Organizer Kathy Austin of Nashville Indivisible said she has worked with police to ensure the event is peaceful. She told WPLN News she expects a big crowd again, given the government shutdown and cuts to Medicaid.
“I think that people are seeing the writing on the wall. They’re seeing that the price of eggs is going up, not down. They’re seeing that all these promises that were made about how much better life was going to be is not occurring,” she said. “You got a federal worker in your family, and there’s a pretty good chance you got an unemployed person who’d had a good job and good benefits.”
At the last ‘No Kings’ protest, WPLN spoke with several protesters who were motivated by the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the city.
“I came out today because I am just terrified for our country,” protester Sara Striegel said. “Seeing the way that ICE is being used to oppress our immigrants and the way that it’s not safe to be a person of color. As a brown woman and a child of immigrants, it’s terrifying to think that the rule of law is no longer in place.”
Ashley Johnson, a teacher, said she was there on behalf of her students.
“I am just so worried about all of our students that don’t have citizen status,” Johnson said. “I know students whose parents have already been deported, and they have to choose whether they’re going to stay here with family they barely know or go back to a country they’ve never been in with their family. I just think that we need to confront what’s really wrong with this country — and immigrants are not what is wrong with this country.”
Nashville’s protest will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning at Tennessee’s Capitol Hill.
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