Oakland turned out by the thousands on Saturday for a historic No Kings march that organizers called one of the biggest protests in US history.
On Saturday, people flooded into the streets in every major US city, from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, and in hundreds of small towns, such as Ray, North Dakota, population 740. The flagship event in St. Paul, Minnesota, attracted more than a hundred thousand to a rally where Bruce Springsteen performed his protest song, “Streets of Minneapolis.” Organizers estimated that 8 million people took part in 3,300 protests nationwide.
In Oakland, organizers estimated that 20,000 protesters filled the streets, marching from City Hall all the way to Lake Merritt, pouring down 14th Street, along Webster, and passing under the 11th Street tunnel as someone blasted the Clash. At the kickoff rally at Frank Ogawa Plaza, Lu Aya of the Peace Poets evoked Oakland’s history of radicalism, from indigenous movements to the Black Panther Party. Dozens fanned out to collect signatures for a ballot measure to fund BART, labor unions and socialist groups tabled, and anti-Flock protesters set up a surveillance-themed beanbag toss…