27 October 2025
By Robert Stewart
Contributing Writer
(Veritenews.org) — Kermit Ruffins trumpeted the Star-Spangled Banner on stage at a grassy field at the edge of the Tremé. A throng of people, many dressed in yellow, sang along, hands over their hearts.
The crowd roared at the last long notes of the song Ruffins sounded.
It could have been the start of a Saints game.
But it was a rally condemning President Donald Trump and his administration.
Thousands of people that crowded the field from all directions of a 2.6 mile-long bicycle and pedestrian park that cuts across the several neighborhoods in New Orleans were there to protest what many described as Trump’s burgeoning authoritarianism.
The New Orleans No Kings rally started on the Lafitte Greenway between North Galvez and North Prieur streets around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 18) as part of a nationwide demonstration against federal policies and governance that experts have described as authoritarian in advance of midterm elections in 2026. New Orleans was one of more than 2500 places set to host a No Kings rally.
Beth Davis, the press liaison for Indivisible NOLA, the group organizing the New Orleans event, said she hoped the gathering would achieve “awareness and motivation for people to get out and vote for whomever they think is in their best interest.”
Davis said roughly 10,000 people showed up for the protest.
Among them were some New Orleans residents already involved in some sort of political action.
Laura Langdon, 70, said she joined a regular protest in the evenings on Magazine Street and Napoleon Avenue after Trump returned to office. For her, being at the rally made her feel a sense of collective energy.
“We all have our little groups, and then we all come together and get ideas,” Langdon said.
Langdon was there with her friend Melinda Early, 71, who said she was inspired by a podcast where she learned about observing immigration courts. Early said she decided to get involved doing that after Trump took office. She said she felt like she was being active and more American by attending the rally with her friend.
Sabrina Foster, who said she is active in Black Lives Matter political organizing in the city, also spoke with Verite News at the rally. She said she became more politically active after losing her son, former Saints player Glenn Foster, Jr., who died while in police custody in Alabama, but that this was her first No Kings rally. Foster said she was happy that white people were finally waking up to a reality that Black Americans have always faced in the country – having to fight for their democracy. She said she’s standing in solidarity for that democracy, but wishes others would have heeded the warnings of Black Americans earlier.
“I’m pissed off, because it took him to come back into office to wake them up,” Foster said.
Eric Gabourel, a co-organizer with Critical Mass NOLA, organized a bike ride to the event. He said that he thinks people are hungry for change, but that creating a shift in conditions for working class people in Louisiana can only be achieved through grassroots organizing that sustains beyond the midterm elections.
“The South is ripe to be organized, but we have to put in the work,” he said.
Among the crowd were also people who came out to serve the community, like Julie Ray, 72, and her team of medics.
A retired nurse, Ray was the lead medic for the event’s standing medic team. She said she grew up in Opelousas, Louisiana and moved to New Orleans first in 1972 before moving to California and returning in 2004, making New Orleans her home. Ray spoke with Verite News on the phone on Thursday ahead of the rally.
“It gets in your soul,” Ray said about the city. “It’s the food, it’s the music and it’s the people. The people of New Orleans are like none other, and they’re the best ever.”
Ray was leading a group of approximately thirty individuals who wanted to be present to ensure that the rally had people who could provide first aid in case it was needed. Her team consists of nurses, physicians, veterinarians and ER nurses.
A stage positioned at the edge of the field held a wide range of speakers including human rights lawyers and student and community activists. The speakers called for the rally goers to become politically engaged in a variety of issues ranging from supporting immigrants, the LGBTQIA+ community and Palestinian liberation.
“We must stop illegal detentions, voter suppression, censorship, cruelty and corruption to protect the rights and the dignity of every person, you know why?” asked one of the speakers, Alanah Odoms, executive director of ACLU Louisiana.
“Because we have a constitution, not a king.”
This article originally published in the October 27, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.