On Saturday, March 28 around noon, roughly 2,000 protesters, organizers and journalists gathered outside Dallas City Hall and flooded surrounding streets. This is the third nationwide No Kings rally since the movement’s genesis in June 2025, and the demonstration in Dallas drew an especially diverse crowd united in a sustained demand for social justice.
Led by the official No Kings organization, it was the most attended of the three No Kings protests in Dallas. Nationwide, the protest turned out to be the largest rally in U.S. history, drawing over 8 million people that demonstrated simultaneously across over 3,300 locations. The October 2025 No Kings protest drew crowds numbering 6 to 7 million across the country, making it the second most attended protest in U.S. history. Third place is held by the June 2025 No Kings protest.
As the walk commenced on Marilla Street, protesters held up signs or country flags and dressing up in expressive costumes. Signs included statements such as “This is how rights disappear” and “Immigrants deporting immigrants from stolen land.”
The Dallas protest was one of the approximately four locations in the U.S. that had a counterprotest, which consisted of approximately 10 individuals including far-right Internet personality Alex Stein. Stein has previously visited UTD alongside members of the university’s Turning Point USA chapter for a counterprotest during Trans Day of Visibility. Another notable member of the counterprotest was Enrique Tarrio, a former member and leader of the Proud Boys and part of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He received a pardon from Trump last year. Dallas Police Department identified another counterprotester as Chad Rogers, who was arrested at the rally for throwing punches at a 71-year-old male protester.
The response from DPD was swift but messy, handling the situation by surrounding and isolating the counterprotesters from the scene. There were also a few reports of DPD acting hostile toward No Kings protesters in the process of containing the commotion. Afterward, the walk was peaceful, with protesters singing lyrics of “Let It Shine,” continuing chants and bonding with one another.
The walk concluded back at Dallas City Hall around 3 p.m., with protesters either dispersing or visiting tables of the local grassroots organizations that had help set up the movement.
A significant portion of the protesting crowd was young, featuring students in particular. Assistant Professor Jonathan Pinckney has been researching and teaching about nonviolent protests and social movements at UTD for a few years now, and according to him, this is no surprise.
“Students are like the lifeblood of protest movements,” he said. “Name any significant nonviolent movement from either the U.S. or around the world that achieved major policy changes, you will almost inevitably find students were either the leaders, or they were sort of a key constituency.”
Students are like the lifeblood of protest movements.
— Jonathan Pinckney, Assistant Professor
According to multiple protesters, one of the main motivations for people to show up for the rally was the heightened presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement around the country and its arrests of citizens without warrants. In the face of these arrests and a deepening anti-immigration atmosphere during Trump’s second term, organizations like El Movimiento were assembled in DFW. Prior to the protest, El Movimiento and other political organizations’ efforts to prepare, build morale and encourage high turnout have included political education events, training DFW residents to become legal observers of law enforcement’s conduct and raising funds for families needing legal aid after ICE arrests.
“I know the fear that is happening when they go to their appointments or check-ins for the field office,” Azael Alvarez, lead organizer of El Movimiento, said. “They’re so scared right now, so we gotta advocate for [them].”
Environmental activism is another issue multiple protesters said they resonated with. In light of the increasing global environmental crisis, a national organization called the Sunrise Movement was assembled. Its DFW chapter has been gathering locals to plant trees, participate in town halls to advocate for sustainable initiatives and receive education on environmental problems. For a protest with as diverse an attendance as No Kings — drawing demonstrators across multiple races, genders, socioeconomic backgrounds and age groups — a coordinator for Sunrise named Gen said understanding how multiple political causes, like war and environmental rights, fit together is key.
“You can’t be an environmentalist without being anti-war,” Gen said. “There’s so much environmental destruction … that goes on by bombing places and by supporting and creating genocides.”
The first wave of No Kings marches stemmed from many Americans’ opposition toward the military parade that occurred on President Donald Trump’s birthday. Subsequently, the movement grew into one against Trump’s actions and policies, especially regarding immigration, militarization and war. In the last year, the movement has increasingly collected the support and partnership of national organizations such as Indivisible and Amnesty International.
Members of political organizations gave speeches to the crowd during the Saturday rally, aiming to inspire and motivate protesters to keep protesting beyond just that day. Despite variety and distinctiveness in each group’s advocacy efforts and speeches, all speakers reached a collective conclusion: that the U.S. has been turning into a monarchy under the Trump administration, but there is no space for kings in America.
This sentiment of showing up regularly, not just for one march, was echoed by attendees like local pastor, author and professor Michael Waters.
“We’ve got to continue to show up,” Waters said. “Because that’s the only way that we can bring about a change in our nation and really in our world.”
One Comment
Beautiful writing! Loved reading it!