When Gerrie Richards filled out the form to reserve the Peace & Justice Plaza for a Chapel Hill location of Saturday’s national protests against President Donald Trump’s administrative actions, she initially gave a conservative estimate.
But as the RSVPs rolled in, she quickly realized it was going to be much bigger.
“I put down 50,” Richards told Chapelboro about her initial estimate on the reservation form. “Then I connected with the national hotline for [Hands Off!], and it quickly went up to 100. That, I thought, would be it… but every day, I kept seeing more people signing on until I had close to 850 people that had signed [up on] that one website.”
People surround the steps of the historic courthouse on the Peace & Justice Plaza as Gerrie Richards speaks and begins the programming of the Chapel Hill “Hands Off!” protest. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Ultimately, the “Hands Off!” protest — locally sponsored by Richards’ Chapel Hill chapter of the National Organization of Women — drew even more people than that Saturday afternoon. Not only was the Peace & Justice Plaza packed with supporters, but people holding signs and leading chants lined a block of East Franklin Street on the other side of the road. Some people who struggled find parking drove in loops around the plaza, sticking their signs out from car windows and sunroofs to participate.
On a day where cities across the country saw demonstrations criticizing Trump and Elon Musk’s widespread efforts to cut or scale back the federal government, the Chapel Hill community joined in with other Triangle members like Durham, Raleigh and Pittsboro. Protestors’ concerns ranged a variety of topics in the crosshairs of the presidential administration: cuts to scientific research, eliminating diversity and inclusion components of departments, threats to Social Security, Medicare, voting rights and more.
Protestors stand across the street from the Peace & Justice Plaza because of the lack of space. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Homemade signs were a staple of Chapel Hill’s protest and the others around the country on Saturday. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Richards led a curated list of speakers to the microphone on the steps of the historic courthouse building to share their perspectives on those issues and others — like threats to public education, child nutrition, and worker’s rights. The group led the crowd in chants, with Richards regularly ringing a bell to ask the crowd to shout, “Shame on Trump, shame on Musk,” and, “Hands off.”
Gerrie Richards of the National Organization of Women – Chapel Hill speaks to the crowd. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
A group of musicians performed songs during Saturday’s event in between speakers. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
A pair of participants hold up signs to lead the crown in a “Hands Off!” chant. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Jennifer Johnson — a Chapel Hill resident who said she was laid off from her job due to the cuts to federal scientific institutes — stood across the street with a flag wrapped around her. The homemade piece featured symbols reflecting the respect for all races and women’s power while calling for justice and equality for the LGBTQ+ community. She said she initially made the flag for the women’s march on Washington D.C. in 2017 at the start of Trump’s first term and brought it out because she saw Saturday’s protest as an evolution of the pushback to his agenda.
“I’m seeing a lot of similar energy,” Johnson said of the demonstration compared to the 2017 march. “I think in January, people were a little nervous because Trump wasn’t yet inaugurated. Today, I think there’s a lot more solidarity with people [and] people seem to be much more focused because I think the reality has sunk with all the stuff that’s been going on over the past couple months.”
Jennifer Johnson shows off her flag, titled “We The People,” while standing on the sidewalk of East Franklin Street during Saturday’s “Hands Off!” protest. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Jody Savage, another Chapel Hill resident who is a retired science professional, agreed about the concerns around the future of drug development, medical products and research. She also held a sign criticizing the targeting of special education resources and misinformation around the community.
“My son has significant cerebral palsy and really, really needed services,” said Savage. “But the cutbacks in special educations are making no distinctions. They’re going to damage children and families across the board.”
Elise Edgar and her fiancé, Andrew Bentkowski, held up signs criticizing the cuts to science and Musk’s oversight in the downsizing of departments despite not being an elected official. Edgar, who is a pharmacology masters student at UNC, shared concerns about research continuing with the cutting of National Institutes of Health grants that fund both the work on campus but also pay for graduate students’ stipends.
“It’s very alarming to see such distrust in science, in people who are just wanting to make the world a better place and heal people,” said Edgar. “It makes me concerned for the future — is there going to be such stagnation in research and drug development that it’s going to impact people all over the world?”
Bentkowski described the passion of Saturday’s crowd as a “relief” to him, because it was a sign that others feel the “anxiety and frustration” he and Edgar have over the Trump administration’s decisions. He said the Chapel Hill event and others are a more accurate reflection of how the general population feels about the current state of affairs compared to what individuals see in their social media bubbles.
“I’d just wondered, ‘Am I the only one thinking this,'” said Bentkowski. “And coming out here and seeing hundreds of people thinking the same thing, just as passionate, all different age groups, reaffirms my faith that we can do something about it and our voices do matter. It gives me hope that we can come together over these issues and not just be talking to each other on the digital landscape.”
Among the speakers at the Peace & Justice Plaza were a pair of Chapel Hill Town Council members: Karen Stegman and Camille Berry. Each of them echoed similar sentiments about coming together to take actions locally with the goal of making a difference nationally. Stegman said she believes the town government can do that by staying committed to the values of its community — and recognizing that more unites the public than divides it.
“Let us reject the false choice between compassion and strength,” said the two-term council member. “A strong government lifts its people up, it does not leave them behind. We are committed to that here in Chapel Hill, and we’ll fight for it at the state and federal levels too.”
Berry encouraged the crowd to continue speaking out against injustices they see, whether locally or nationally. She also said she believes in order to keep up the protest’s fortitude through Trump’s administration, she urged people to know their limits of what types of resistance they can take on and when to realize they need to care for themselves.
“Keep dancing, keep singing, keep saying ‘no’ and keep coming together,” said Berry. “That is how we will prevail.”
Many of the suggested actions by Richards and others included calling representatives, seeking out local groups who are organizing over these issues, and making plans for upcoming election cycles. The NOW Chapel Hill member added that beyond getting people energized for holding the Trump administration accountable, she believes the event helped lift people’s spirits by collectively participating in something and bringing people face to face with each other.
“I think it did make people feel better, it made a sense of community here in this [protest],” said Richards. “Because you can feel very isolated and depressed when you watch the news every night. I did not want people to leave feeling worse than they did [arriving] and I did not want them to leave here feeling that there’s nothing they can do.”
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