ATLANTA — Marches unfolded in cities across the U.S. on Thursday. In Atlanta, hundreds stopped traffic as they marched through downtown streets.
They started at Liberty Plaza outside the State Capitol building.
“We’re not having it,” Rob Helfenbein said.
He joined a group called Indivisible Atlanta to protest on May Day.
It’s a day set aside to honor the labor movement, and this year, critics of President Donald Trump’s administration used it to protest his policies that relate to workers, like federal job cuts.
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“The impact is just devastating, and it keeps happening day after day,” Helfenbein told Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco.
Others showed up to take a stand against tariff decisions, 401(k) losses, and inflation.
“I have to spend over half my check just to get back and forth to work. I can’t afford to go out and get a car,” Theresa Kinard said.
Some criticized the new administration’s immigration decisions that have impacted workers and students.
“It was incredibly inspiring. The conversations that we have at events like this, and across groups where we build coalitions, is the only way we win,” Heflenbein said.
The crowd did not stay put. They marched through the middle of downtown Atlanta streets, stalling rush hour traffic.
“A massive turnout with people standing up for workers’ rights,” GA NAACP President Gerald Griggs said. “Standing up against the Administration’s attack on DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”
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Griggs marched with protestors.
“I think lawmakers should listen,” Griggs said. “These are everyday citizens who vote.”
With a police escort, organizers were able to lead the crowd around buildings where the rally cries might resonate, like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration headquarters, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s building, and Atlanta’s City Hall.
In response to the marches on Thursday, Georgia GOP chair Josh McKoon sent a statement saying: “These rent-a-mobs are not fooling anyone. President Trump is delivering for the American people, and they are responding to his message.”
Even before the May Day protests started Wednesday afternoon, about 50 attorneys retook their oaths to defend the Constitutions of the United States and the state of Georgia inside Atlanta City Hall on Thursday.
They said they did that because they’re worried the Trump administration is actively engaged in judicial interference and disobeying direct orders from federal courts.
And they worry, the administration is threatening and punishing law firms who argued against it.
“Our founders envisioned a nation of laws, premised on three separate but co-equal branches of government,” said Beverly Martin, a retired judge who previously sat on Atlanta’s 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Andrea Young, who is president of the Georgia ACLU, told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot that her organization will continue to fight the Trump administration in court.
“We are committed to defend our democracy against the chaos and cruelty and the constitutional violations that we see happening,” Young said.
“It probably does not surprise you to know that I see this as an increasingly, really, just an exercise in hypocrisy,” McKoon told Elliot.
McKoon is also an attorney and believes the Biden administration weaponized the judicial system against Trump, leading to his indictment on election interference charges in Fulton County.
“It’s a little hard for me to stomach the idea that the Trump administration is somehow unfairly targeting lawyers,” McKoon said.
Pending a ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court, the Fulton County case against Trump and the other election interference defendants remains open.
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