People of all ages gathered in front of the Horry County Courthouse for the third national No Kings protest, locally organized by the Coastal Democracy initiative, on Saturday at 11 a.m.
“We want to remind ourselves and our representatives that the power resides in the people, not in the king,” Coastal Democracy Founder Todd Madigan said.
Although the United States is described as a democratic republic that uses an electoral college system to determine presidency, participant Lorraine Diana explained where she feels this fear of a king is coming from.
Diana said she feels the biggest issue is that due process has been obliterated in the U.S.
“We have a regime that currently does not adhere to court orders once there are court injunctions against them. When that happens, democracy fails very rapidly,” Diana said.
The non-violent protest brought approximately 260 people voicing their mortification and disapproval of President Donald Trump’s policies and decisions.
Participants carried signs with slogans such as: “Democracy needs your courage,” “No sign is big enough to list all the reasons I am here,” “No crown for the clown” and “We’re not here because there’s hope. There’s hope because we’re here.”
Community member Samantha Montgomery said that she felt helpless before coming to these rallies but feels welcomed and hopeful every time she participates.
“Coming here and seeing people of all ages stand for their rights is huge,” she said.
Montgomery walked back and forth in front of the crowd using a megaphone to lead chants: “End the rich, feed the poor, we won’t take it anymore,” “When our rights are under attack, what do we do? We fight back,” “1, 2, 3, 4, we don’t want your bloody war” and “No justice, no peace, get ICE officers off our streets.”
All participants spoke to shared a specific policy or conflict that they were unsettled by.
CCU sophomore and biology medicine major Anna Lee Fischer said she’s upset by the amount of news that is being censored, especially with what she called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Minneapolis.
Fischer shared that this was her first local protest among many frequent participants, such as Rose Sturgeon.
Sturgeon came to her third Coastal Democracy rally dressed as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993-2020. Sturgeon said that she feels the country has lost standards and morals that the U.S. Constitution is meant to protect.
“I mean what are we teaching everyone? We’re teaching them a lack of stability, respect and morals; a world where the wealthier and powerful gain more,” she said. “As a grandparent, I want their world to be better.”
To promote change and empathy, Coastal Democracy partnered with local nonprofit The Shepherd’s Table and the Community Change Initiative for this protest.
According to their website, The Shepherd’s Table offers access to food and hygiene products to neighbors in need. A collection of hygiene products was collected at the rally and will be packaged by Coastal Carolina students volunteering with the Community Change Initiative led by CCU sociology professors Stephanie Southworth and Sara Brallier.
Madigan said that this rally and partnership with community partners is important now more than ever.
“Because gas and groceries are becoming unaffordable, because millions of Americans are losing their healthcare, because young people are graduating with a college degree without any hope of ever owning a home or finding a job,” Madigan said.
For two hours protestors kept to the sidewalks holding their signs high as cars drove past and honked to show support.
Although the rally was able to take place and hundreds were able to participate, Madigan said he faced conflict when trying to obtain a permit to protest.
Madigan said he filled out an application for a permit from the city to protest in front of the courthouse. However, after being granted a permit from the city, Madigan said he was told to apply for a permit from the county as well.
“The problem is, in order to get a permit from the county, we need to have liability insurance and insurance companies have stopped giving liability insurance to what they consider political arise,” Madigan said. “I had many conversations with county and city officials about this but decided that this is our First Amendment right.”
With the goal to radiate joy, Madigan said he felt that the environment for this rally was tremendously supportive. There were no opposers present at the rally besides a man that drove past multiple times on a motorcycle with flags supporting Trump and occasional vulgar comments from drivers that passed.
Coastal Democracy updates and events can be found on the initiative’s official Instagram page.
“We can disagree, but it’s not about politics at this point, it’s about humanity,” Sturgeon said.
