“Welcome to the Resistance,” wrote INDY’s editor in the days following Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration. “Trump Is President, But Trumpism Can Never Prevail.”
Eight years later, only half of that headline appears to be true.
Still, on Monday morning, just hours before Donald Trump took the oath for his second term in the White House, about 70 people marched down Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street. Officially, they were there to celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr., but the specter of the inauguration day was impossible to shake.
With hands tucked into pockets to battle the freezing temperatures, marchers sang “Amazing Grace” and chanted the “forward together/not one step back” call and response of North Carolina’s Moral Mondays movement.
“Imagine today if Kamala had won,” one marcher said quietly. It would have been “a celebration in the street,” said another.
Kamala swept the blue hubs of the Triangle. But she didn’t, of course, win the state. Or the country. So instead of celebrating, progressive leaders spent the day trying to ready their constituents for the impending grind of four more years under Trump.
The march concluded at the First Baptist Church, where Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson addressed a packed basement.
“Many of us have been comforting our children, ourselves, and our friends on what is clearly a huge setback for our country, and another blow to the notion that the arc of justice of the moral universe consistently bends towards justice,” Anderson said. “What a world it is where this inauguration happens on MLK day.”
Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee, speaking to the INDY after the event, said that she expects “something every day” from the new administration. “As a local elected official, the onus is on myself, as well as my council, to ensure safety and protection for all of our community, and that’s exactly what we intend to do. We’re an inclusive community, and we will continue to work towards that.”
Over in Raleigh, while the former and current president celebrated with a luncheon in Washington, a crowd of about 200 people assembled at the northern end of Moore Square Park. Speakers from the various groups addressed the crowd, but the response seemed muted.
It was a stark contrast to Trump’s first inauguration week, when the Women’s March brought some 17,000 people downtown.
A drone buzzed overhead and late afternoon sunlight peeked through between the buildings. Across the street, seven police officers on motorcycles stood watch in front of Marbles Kids Museum.
With many donning keffiyehs and face masks, attendees carried black-and-white signs reading “We Fight Back for Workers’ Rights,” “Wall Street is the Enemy, Not Immigrants,” and “Resistance Against Occupation Is a Human Right.”
Workers’ groups, including the Union of Southern Service Workers and UE Local 150, immigrant rights groups including Siembra NC and El Pubelo, and pro-Palestinian groups including Palestinian Youth Movement and Jewish Voices for Peace, were all represented.
“We gather here …. to say that we will fight back against Trump’s extreme, right-wing, anti-immigrant, anti-worker, imperialist agenda, a billionaire agenda,” said the first speaker, who identified himself as Victor from the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
The crowd cheered.
“We’re here,” he added later, “because the Democratic party failed to meet the needs of working people.”
Jane Porter contributed reporting to this story.
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