An estimated 10,000 people came to the Texas Capitol grounds to protest Trump and his military parade. (Photo by John Anderson)
Hours before the No Kings protest in Austin was scheduled to begin, state police evacuated the Capitol. Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota had been shot Saturday morning, and Texas state police informed local lawmakers that there was a “credible threat” to their lives at the protest.
“I want to ask you honestly, how many of you were afraid to come here today?” Austin’s State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt asked the crowd, which was more than 10,000 according to police.
Protesters raised their hands and hooted. A mom bounced her baby in a rainbow hat, while a young boy sat on his father’s shoulders. Signs included Bible verses and calls to kill billionaires. A grey-haired woman with an acoustic guitar asked: “Are you ready grannies?” She and her crew of elders launched into familiar patriotic melodies with rewritten words about resisting a dictator. Brigitte Bandit, an Austin drag queen and one of Texas’ most recognizable activists, performed “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine. The crowd chanted: Fuck you, I won’t do what you told me.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, another elected representative speaking while under apparent threat of assassination, gave a roundup of recent disturbing news headlines. He pointed to the shooting in Minnesota, and the incident Thursday when California Sen. Alex Padilla was aggressively arrested on camera. The crowd booed.
A teenage girl introduced by local immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told the crowd her father had just been deported. She said, in case he was listening: “Pa, lo quiero mucho.”
Several speakers, including Doggett and Eckhardt, emphasized that the crowd should go home after the demonstration and before dark. Any vandalism or rioting would play into Trump’s hands, they said.
“How many of you were afraid to come here today?” – State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt
Most of the crowd left when the microphones were unplugged, but hundreds marched through Downtown chanting: “the people united will never be divided” and “fuck the Nazis.” Men with backpacks stood on the sidewalks, offering cold water bottles and cereal bars as snacks.
On Congress, then blocked off by local police and state troopers, a speaker rolled into the middle of an intersection. People formed a circle, clapped, danced, and waved American and Mexican flags as the sun set on the Texas Capitol a few blocks away.
As the sun was still setting, the crowd split into smaller groups, some of whom gathered after being blocked by law enforcement at Tenth Street and San Jacinto Boulevard. Local police and state troopers formed a line to block protesters, and some demonstrators got close to officers’ faces, yelling and blowing air horns. Others farther from the police line danced to Chicano music.
That gathering ended without a violent outburst. About an hour later, on Red River and Fourth, some of the crowd ran from what appeared to be a cloud of pepper spray. But much of the group, still hundreds strong, continued marching into the night, waving flags, banging on drums, and insisting that they would not be divided.