Demonstrators in nine Mississippi ‘No Kings’ rallies fill streets, highways and bridges

“I currently work for the government and so I just got to protect my job and protect myself in this current political climate,” he said, adding organizers had also wanted to avoid conflicts with people out for the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. 

“We normally do this at the capitol building, but out of concern for safety, people, politics, and alcohol don't mix,” he said. “And we don't wanna be an inconvenience to our neighbors who are trying to have a good time.”

At the first ‘No Kings’ rally held last June, Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the One Big Beautiful Bill were top of mind. Now, the ongoing war in Iran, back to back government shutdowns and changes to SNAP and Medicaid have come to the forefront.

Amat said he's also worried about the local cost of living.

“With data centers popping up in every other town in Mississippi, just trying to take advantage of the cheap land, cheap labor, and cheap energy, my power bill has gone up by about 75% in the last year too before the war happened,” he said.

Jackson native Solomon Esco was attending his first 'No Kings' rally after being invited by a friend. 

“I've had more friends that are more aware of everything going on. So I want to be more aware like them,” he said. “I wanna be able to conversate with them, learn from each other. Last year I didn't even know about ‘No Kings.’ If I knew about it, I would have been there.”

Lisa Records came to the Jackson rally with her two young sons and her partner. She said life has been hard as a low-income Mississippian.

“I had to deny applying for TANF because I found that they want me to do 40 plus hours of community service, scrubbing and breaking my back, and also searching for jobs,” she said, citing recent high-profile cases of celebrities tied to the state’s sprawling welfare fraud scandal.

Other demonstrators held signs denouncing the Trump administration’s support of ICE enforcement across the country, deportation efforts and what some of them see as the weakening of Congress. 

“I really wanted my voice to be heard. You know, a lot of times you see these statistics and numbers about people who disagree and agree and I feel like that's a bit disingenuous to the people who agree. We have lives. We're people. We're not just numbers,” said Rose Jordan, another first time demonstrator.

“I feel like it's more so just showing that there are people here that don't support this. You know, we're in a conservative state, but there's still a lot of people out here that don't support this,” Jordan said, adding that participating in the demonstration provided a new sense of community.

Belhaven student Blake Higgins said the Jackson demonstration was small but important for him to attend. 

“I can recognize when there's a big power shift and when we can see that a president can take all this power away from Congress, you make signs like, what is Congress for?” he said, pointing to his sign.

“It's so weird to think about all that's happened in this past year because we've had National Guards sent out to cities, which isn't 100% legal. We've had wars declared by our president, multiple, which is, once again, something that Congress needs to be doing,” Higgins said. “Even things like getting to pay the TSA, it's good that they're finally getting paid, but again, that's not something he's supposed to be doing.” 

Eight other demonstrations were held across the state in Gulfport, Tupelo, Starkville, Biloxi, Bay St. Louis, Oxford, Hattiesburg and Olive Branch. 

Kelly Jacobs, who chairs Indivisible DeSoto, says a City Hall No Kings rally drew more than 300 demonstrators, many who also spoke about national and local issues.

“We counted 325 people and then after we stopped counting, more people came,” she said. “So, a conservative number is that we had 350 there.”

Jacobs said signs represented a broad range of issues. 

“There were a lot of anti-war signs. There were ‘Release the Epstein files. Keep your eye on the Epstein files,’” she said. “I saw one about the gasoline prices. Gosh, there were a lot of people who were holding up ‘No King’ signs, no thrones, no ICE. There were ICE signs because close to us, they were going to put up a concentration camp in Byhalia, which is just 20 minutes from my home.”

The date of the next No Kings rally has not been confirmed.