This photo essay was made possible in part by a grant from the Fourth Estate Fund.
An estimated 1,200 — 1,500 community members rallied as part of the nationwide Hands Off! protest on Saturday, April 5, to make their grievances against the policies of the Trump Administration and his billionaire advisor Elon Musk heard.
The turnout far surpassed the expectations of the action's organizers. Sam Pierce, who is a member of the steering committee for Indivisible Actions Southeast North Carolina, said the group initially expected 200 people and was planning for around 300.
As RSVPs online quickly exceeded 500, the group added more staging areas for people to congregate. They also made sure that the area they had planned to use for the protest, at the corner of Wooster and South 3rd Streets, could hold more than 1,000 people.
Speakers took turns addressing the crowd. Pierce has done work as an organizer since the 1980s, often focusing on the labor movement. On Saturday, he emphasized, "We don't need a moment, we need a movement." He further explained, "I've never seen a moment like this as long as I've been doing this stuff," but added that sustained "movements are what changes things" as he recalled the decades-long efforts of the Civil Rights movement and the labor movement.
Around the country, hundreds of thousands of people rallied in over 1,200 communities in all 50 states as part of the larger Hands Off! protest. In Wilmington, people held signs demanding the Trump administration keep its hands off everything from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, to veterans benefits, women's bodies, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrants, public lands, democracy, and free speech. A major protest was held in Brunswick County
Holding a sign that read "Don't Touch My Social Security!" Edie Steele, 85, said she never planned to be out protesting at her age. "These are my golden years and I want them back." Meanwhile, kids as young as five held signs that read "Trump is a meanie."
The local Indivisible chapter is part of a national organization that describes itself as a grassroots movement "with a mission to elect progressive leaders, rebuild our democracy, and defeat the Trump agenda." They're hoping to capitalize on the wide range of issues that are bringing people out to protest, many of them for the first time ever. Sage Reil, who is also a member of the steering committee for Indivisible Actions Southeast North Carolina, says she had never personally felt a call to activism until recently.
"What we're seeing is that people who have never done activism, who have never picked up a sign, they're taking to the streets. They're fed up and they want their voices heard," she explained.
As President Trump and his administration make drastic cuts to the federal workforce and federal spending, impose steep tariffs, and work to reshape the country, Reil said she feels that this is no longer about the American dream. "This is turning into the American nightmare."
At Saturday's rally, chants of, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go!" resounded through the crowd as a near-constant cacophony of cars honking their horns in support drove past the busy intersection.
But Reil insists that this "is absolutely beyond party politics. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue." Rather, she said, "it's about the unbelievably wealthy of our country that are making life difficult for every single other person that is just trying to get by."
