Editor’s note: This is a photo essay with reporting and personal reflections by the author.
The sound of thousands of people chanting echoed off the walls of the downtown skyscrapers around Travis Park Saturday, as San Antonians gathered to protest President Donald Trump’s policies in the second nationwide “No Kings” protest.
I attended the demonstration to document it as a photojournalist. I also documented the first “No Kings” protest June 14.
Organisers told news outlets the nationwide demonstrations brought together millions of people to protest against what organizers called “authoritarian policies” and government corruption.
In San Antonio, people of all ages marched peacefully through the streets around Travis Park, chanting and holding signs, some dressed in abstract costumes.
When I arrived, parking a few blocks down from the protest, I immediately heard the chanting and speeches.
As I walked toward the gathering, I saw a man in a George Washington costume, another with a “FUCK ICE” shirt, and another wearing a shirt with a hairy chest printed on it and American flag shorts.
At Travis Park, people surrounded a canopy, listening to speakers, including U.S. Congressmen Joaquin Castro (Texas’s 20th District) and Greg Casar (Texas’s 35th District), and Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez.
Once the speeches concluded around 5 p.m., the march began. I saw more costumes, including Zelda, unicorns and some ape masks.
A lot of people waved American flags. Some displayed American flags upside down, a gesture the U.S. flag code says should be reserved to “signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” Some people also flew Mexican flags, Palestinian flags and others among a sea of signs held high.
People chanted phrases and rhymes such as, “This is what democracy looks like,” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”
One chant echoed a phrase written on many signs: “Donald Trump, let’s be clear, immigrants are welcome here.”
As I walked among the marchers, making photos, the sound of banging drums kept the rhythm with the people’s chants.
At the front of the march, an elderly woman banged a drum, enthusiastically chanting “God is king … Jesus is king” and other chants.
Behind her, members of 50501, one of the groups that organized the protest, held a large banner with the words “We the people, for the people.” The group’s website says its name stands for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement.”
Next to that banner, members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, held a banner that read, “No kings & no billionaires! We need a whole new system!”
As the marchers made their way through the streets, dozens of observers watched from sidewalks and elevated positions in parking garages and nearby buildings.
As the march concluded and I stepped back onto the grass at Travis Park, I was filled with a strong sense of freedom and pride in the American ideal that people have the right to protest peacefully, whatever the message. That is the true sentiment of the American promise laid out in the First Amendment of our Constitution:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
