4:30 p.m.
Once the “No Kings Rally and March” ended just after 2:00 p.m., a second protest kicked off on the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago in support of Palestine.
A coalition of grassroots organizers, include the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CCJP), are leading the “Support the March to Gaza to End the Genocide” protest and march.
“Israel violated yet another international law by seizing Madleen #FreedomFlotilla and kidnapping 12 international activists who were sailing to Gaza in an attempt to break the 18 year-old siege on the strip,” reads an Instagram post from CCJP. “In the next week or so, over 7,500 activists, mainly from North Africa, are set to march on foot to Gaza from Egypt. We will rally and march in downtown Chicago to support them and continue to demand an end to the U.S.-funded genocide in Palestine and an end to all U.S. aid to Israel.”
This protest is still ongoing.
4:15 p.m.
A smaller protest has begun, marching down Michigan Avenue toward Chicago Avenue in downtown Chicago. This protest centers Palestine, and has a crowd of about 200 people.
This is a regular pro-Palestine protest that takes place every Saturday.
3:45 p.m.
The “No Kings Rally and March” in Chicago is coming to an end. Two 17-year-old residents, Zuri Primm from Homewood and Taliah Shelton from Roseland, say they joined the march today because they were thinking of the future of the country.
“This is my future, you know? I’m the one who has to live in this country. I’m the one who has to continue to go to school in this country. I’m expected to raise a family in this country,” Primm said. “And if I’m going to do that, if I’m going to have a life here, I want it to be right. I want it to be correct.”
Shelton said she believes that today’s protest is a way to make a change.
“Black people have gone through a lot of repression. And I feel like even though we went through it, it’s not right for anyone else to go through it as well,” Shelton said. “I feel like if we want to change that, we have to come out here and make a change. We can’t just be saying what we’re going to do and what we should be doing. We have to do it in the moment.”
Shelton says the $45 million that was reportedly spent on Trump’s military parade in Washington D.C. today would be better off invested in her Roseland community.
“It could have put people in homes. It could have helped with the hunger of homeless people. It could have helped with a lot of things,” Shelton said. “To spend that on a parade, I feel like that’s just selfish.”
2:55 p.m.
Jah Wyatt, a 23-year-old South Side resident, says he feels like the political moment the country is in right now is a fight for humanity. That’s why he joined today’s “No Kings Rally and March” in downtown Chicago.
“I come over here because it’s not just my people, but people I care about. I feel like this issue isn’t something that just Hispanics should be out [here supporting], or just Black people should be [out here supporting], but everybody that’s a part of this country should be supporting this cause because it affects every single one of us,” Wyatt said about the march. “This man [Trump] is trying to revert us back to past times. He’s trying to remove certain rights that we have. He’s trying to make a mockery of who we are as people.”
The Chicago Teachers Union also are among the many organizations spotted during today’s march, which has an estimated crowd in the tens of thousands. “We are the union, the mighty, mighty union,” is CTU’s chant as they walk with a big red sign with the words “Students over billionaires” written on it.
— Corli Jay
2:20 p.m.
As the march makes it way down Wacker Drive, protestors are being met by Chicago police blocking bridges along the river with Streets and Sanitation trucks.
1:20 p.m.
Tens of thousands of people are now marching out of the Daley Plaza meetup spot to move through the streets of downtown Chicago. The local march, organized by Indivisible Chicago and other organizations, is part of the nationwide “No Kings” rally happening simultaneously in dozens of city across the country. It’s been estimated that millions are joining the “No Kings” march.
Festive protest music is blaring through the streets as protestors march on. The sounds of Kendrick Lamar’s rap anthem, “Not Like Us,” and Sister Sledge’s 1979 disco track, “We Are Family,” are among the songs soundtracking the march.
— Corli Jay
12:45 p.m.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the “No Kings” rally in Chicago began with a moment of silence for the fatal shootings in Minnesota. Early Saturday morning, a gunman impersonating a police officer killed a Minnesota state representative and her husband, and wounded a state senator and his wife, according to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
12:30 p.m.
Chicago — People are gathering at Chicago’s Daley Plaza for today’s national day of protest denouncing Trump’s attacks on civil rights, called the “No Kings Rally and March.”
The protest coincides with a planned military parade in Washington D.C. to honor his birthday and the 250th anniversary of the US Army.
Simultaneous “No Kings” protests are planned for locations around the country.
