Thousands of people gathered at the Atlanta Civic Center and marched through downtown to the State Capitol on Saturday for the city’s second “No Kings” rally, sending a message that they’re unafraid to exercise their free speech rights and expect their local leaders to do the same.
Organizers estimated that as many as 15,000 people attended, although Atlanta Civic Circle estimated the number to be closer to 7,000.
City officials initially did not issue a march permit for the rally but the organizers, a coalition of groups including the ACLU of Georgia, Indivisible and 50501 vowed to march to the Capitol regardless.
“I was really disappointed when the city was at first not allowing the march to happen,” said John Clark, a 51-year-old former Marine from DeKalb County who attended Saturday’s march. “They came around. But we want officials who will quickly support these kinds of activities.”
Following public pressure, the city issued a permit for the march on Thursday, just two days before the rally. “Any claim that the city of Atlanta has not or does not support this event is false,” Mayor Andre Dickens’ office said in an Oct. 16 statement.
Sen. Rafael Warnock (D-Georgia), speaking to Atlanta Civic Circle after rallying the crowd, said he hadn’t paid attention to the details of the permit controversy. “All I know is we gathered here today, and we’re participating in the long American tradition of protests,” he said.
Many demonstrators took inspiration from the animal-costumed, anti-ICE protesters in Portland, Oregon. Clark and his wife Amy Bryant, 53, wore frog costumes and held a sign that read “Frogs against fascism / amphifa,” lampooning the Trump administration’s designation of antifa as a terrorist organization. Antifa is not a centralized organization, but a loose term to refer to groups that are anti-fascist.
“I want our elected officials here in Atlanta to not bend the knee to these policies,” Bryant, a mental health counselor, said of Trumps’ attacks on DEI, disability rights, and transgender rights.
Clark and Bryant warned they would look to see whether local elected officials like the DeKalb County Sheriff collaborated with ICE when it came time to reelect them.
Jen Geckler, 58, of Buckhead, who was outfitted as a giant lobster, wants her local representatives to stand up for voting and reproductive rights. “We’re tired of Georgia trying to eliminate our voting rights and women’s rights,” she said.
Others still had more basic cost of living concerns for their local elected officials. “Property taxes are ridiculous. They’re pricing everyone out of the neighborhood,” said Colleen Wheeler, 52, also a Buckhead resident.
But the constant message to local officials from demonstrators Atlanta Civic Circle spoke to was simply to defend people’s rights, and do the right thing. “I want them to do what’s right, even if it hurts,” said Kiki Willis, an East Point resident dressed as an axolotl, a type of salamander.
Atlanta City Council president hopeful Rohit Malhotra seized on that sentiment when he took the stage to address the crowd before the march. “We cannot denounce Trump nationally and behave like him locally,” he said. “If you want progressives in City Hall, you need to vote them in.”
His opponent, District 11 Councilmember Marci Collier Overstreet, told Atlanta Civic Circle that she “stopped by the march right before supporting my husband at his Morehouse Homecoming.”
Atlanta Board of Education At-Large Seat 7 member Alfred “Shivy” Brooks hammered home the importance of paying attention to local races. Brooks is not up for reelection, but the four even-numbered school board seats are on the Nov. 4 ballot.
“Education is always the first thing to be under attack when a fascist government tries to take over,” Brooks said. “It is critical that we pay attention to what’s happening locally,” he said, because local officials are “the safeguard [against] fascism.”
Brooks encouraged Atlantans to vote in the current city elections, noting that only 13% of the city’s voters turned out for the last municipal elections in 2023, when he was elected to the school board.
Early voting for the Nov. 4 election runs through Oct. 31.
