Hundreds gather for peaceful 'No Kings' rally in High Point

Hundreds of people marched through downtown High Point Saturday afternoon with a message: “No Kings.” 

Attendees joined thousands of others across the country in protest of what they say are authoritarian actions under President Donald Trump. 

Rally-goers in the Triad held signs calling for Trump to be “dethroned,” or “crowned” with criminal charges.

Meg Baesmith, who lives in Durham but was on vacation nearby, held a sign that read: “No Kings, Yaaas Queens.”

“For me as a part of the LGBTQ community, it's important to link those two things together,” Baesmith said. “You know, Pride was started as a riot, and it should be political, and right now it has to be political.”

Throughout the day, two musical groups — the Raging Grannies and Joe Troop’s Truth Machine — played and sang songs about fascism and resistance. Event organizers and community activists also spoke to the crowd about a variety of issues, like services for veterans, women’s rights and immigration. 

Mitzi Turner, a member of the Guilford County Democratic Party's African American Caucus, was one of them. 

"This is our country, and we will fight for it like we used to have to do. Have you not noticed this cycle? We fight, we get comfortable, we have to fight again," Turner said. "The same things we've been fighting for, for years. But we're not going to take it anymore."

Steve Tate, a retired minister and co-leader of the Greensboro Interfaith Immigrant Justice Coalition, asked the audience to shout out where their ancestors came from, and then repeat along with him: “We are all immigrants.”

“We are no different from those who come now from all over the world to America with courage and determination to survive and find freedom and build new life for their families,” Tate said. “But every single day, we are told lies about immigrants. Those who would be like kings tell us they are criminals coming to harm us, destroy our way of life, to eat our dogs and cats. … These are lies.” 

Trump’s immigration policies were a concern for a lot of attendees. Isabel Del Angel said she came out to the protest to speak up for those who can’t. 

“Coming from immigrant parents, I feel like I have the responsibility to raise my voice for the injustice that we've been seeing lately,” she said. “I can't sit around and do nothing. I have to make sure that my voice is heard.”

Del Angel held a small American flag, and a sign that read: “God forbid a girl wants liberty and justice for all.”

Another attendee, Nora Ayala, moved to the United States 44 years ago from Argentina.

She said she lived through the country’s dictatorship. 

“So I know how this feels and how this looks like, and it's scary,” Ayala said.

But she, like many other protesters, said she was pleased by the large turnout. 

“Courageous is contagious,” she said.

The protest in High Point remained peaceful. Other “No Kings” demonstrations were held throughout North Carolina, including in Lexington, Charlotte and Raleigh. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.