Atlanta 50501 protests highlight frustration with first month of Trump administration
Jen Gosset, an Atlanta mother who attended the Feb. 5 protest, said she was there to fight for her children’s education.
“I’m a mom, and I’m worried about the future of our kids,” Gosset said. “I’m worried about the education they might not be receiving if this continues. I’m worried about what’s happening right now with [Elon] Musk, who wasn’t even on the ballot, and I’m just worried for the country.”
Currently, the Department of Education serves as an umbrella over education for federal funding, ensuring equal opportunities for all citizens and protecting students with learning disabilities. The Trump administration aims to disband the Department of Education, creating fully state-regulated education systems. Melissa Heinz, a protester at the President’s Day protest, is concerned for these potential changes.
“We’re all pretty scared,” Heinz said. “We’re very scared of the end of the Department of Education. The state of Georgia doesn’t have that great of an education as it is, and I’m really fearful for our Title 1 schools, and what’s going to happen to all of these special needs educational funding in the state.”
The Trump administration removed CNN, the Washington Post and other news organizations from their Pentagon workspaces, replacing them with more conservative outlets, including Newsmax and the Daily Caller. Walters said those actions reflect a general attack on American rights.
“Across the whole country, we’re losing our rights, and it feels very clear that it’s going to get worse,” Walters said. “They’re going to come for the journalists very soon. They’ve already begun to do that by shutting them out of press conferences.”
Many of Trump’s foreign policies and statements, including his calls to take over Canada and Greenland, have been met with criticism from other countries. Protester Audra Killian worries that his foreign policy will weaken America’s relationships with allies.
“We have had calls from people all over the world saying that they do not trust us anymore,” Killian said. “China, Russia and Iran, our enemies, are actively rejoicing over this. Everything we have done to fight the People’s Republic of China has been destroyed. All of our relationships with all of our foreign allies have been destroyed because people were unhappy with the last four years, but this is not the antidote. The destruction of our country is not the antidote.”
Ninety million eligible voters did not vote in the 2024 election. Cassandra Andrews, a protester, said this enabled Trump to win the presidency.
“I’m mostly angry at the percentage of people who did not vote because what happens to one of us happens to all of us,” Andrews said.
Protester Mark Swanson is frustrated that Musk, who runs the Department of Government Efficiency, is interfering with federal agencies, despite not being an elected official.
“I think what he’s doing is unconstitutional, and it’s illegal. I mean, it’s acting against acts of Congress. All these agencies or departments have been put in place by Congress. He doesn’t have the authority to dismantle them.”
On Election Day and the two days after, searches for “how to change my vote” spiked in states won by Trump. However, protester Bethany Verbrugge thinks voters should have known the repercussions of a second Trump administration.
“The first time, you can at least try to pretend that you didn’t know what was going to happen,” Verbrugge said. “This time, there’s no way to pretend, and so it’s terrifying to me that not only is he bold, but his followers, the people who voted for him, are proud that they agree with all of this; that they agree with traumatizing people; that they agree with risking people’s lives.”
Conversely, protestor Lee Walters believes Democrats should work to find middle ground.
“It’s a real dilemma: how to begin to understand the confusion and pain that Trump supporters feel, and not talk about them as though they are all stupid, mean, angry,” Walters said. “Now, I do think Donald Trump is stupid, mean and angry, but the millions of people who voted for him clearly felt threatened somehow. I’m not sure how we’re going to bridge that gap, but I think that’ll have to happen.”
During the first week of his administration, Trump increased activity from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, leading to an increase in raids and deportations in Atlanta. Verbrugge said through her work as a therapist, she has seen Atlanta’s undocumented Brazilian community “terrified” to leave their homes.
“This is traumatizing,” Verbrugge said. “It’s traumatizing to go out and be terrified that any police is associated with ICE and is going to take them and send them back to the country where they were suffering, where they were raped, where something happened for them to want to come over here.”
Immigrants make up 12% of the Atlanta population and 71% of the immigrants participate in the labor force. Maria Alejandra, who protested on Presidents Day, said Atlanta’s immigrant community takes on important jobs that native-born citizens often pass off.
“They’re part of our communities,” Alejandra said. “They support our economy; they support their neighbors, and they’re here doing work that a lot of other people wouldn’t want to do, and they are being denied due process.”
One of Trump’s executive orders attempted to end birthright citizenship and has been temporarily paused by a federal judge. Another recent change under the Trump administration has been the removal of the Sensitive Places Act, which allows ICE officials to conduct raids on schools and churches.
“It’s obviously horrendous, and it’s infringing on people’s civil rights,” Jackson Faw, a protester at the march and local activist, said. “Birthright citizenship is an honored and vested part of our Constitution. He can’t just wish that away. I think it’s horrible, going into schools, going into churches and ripping kids out of the arms of their families.”
Verbrugge has seen the impacts of the removal of the Sensitive Places Act on a personal level.
“Kids have the fundamental right to go to school in this country,” Verbrugge said. “People have the fundamental right to go to the hospital if they need care. I know people personally who have needed to go to the hospital, but who have not gone because they’re afraid that ICE is going to show up and take them away. Realistically, not only is this traumatizing, but it also risks lives.”
Verbrugge said American perception of undocumented immigrants unfairly discounts their challenges. She came to the protest to support immigrants because she said many of them were too afraid of deportation to attend themselves.
“The reality of it is that they came here for a better life,” Verbrugge said. “They came here because the conditions in their own countries weren’t very conducive to a healthy and happy life. Just as we are immigrants, if you go back far enough, they deserve to be here, too. The way that they’re being treated, the way that they are being perceived in the media, is not fair. I just wanted to show up and be the voice for them because a lot of them are too scared that ICE would show up and take them if they were to show up.”
Walters said Americans don’t understand the positive impacts immigrants have on American society.
“We’ve always been a nation of immigrants,” Walters said. “That’s one of our core common experiences, whether people understand it that way or not. Somehow, we have to reconnect with the importance of including and inviting people and welcoming people who are going to make the country better. We’re going in the wrong direction.”
Trump’s Executive Order 14151 orders the end of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives in the federal government, and has resulted in the termination of DEI programs in colleges, public schools and corporations, including Target, Meta and Amazon. Derrick Jackson, State Representative for the 68th district, is concerned Trump’s anti-DEI policies will limit opportunities for women and other marginalized communities.
“I want my four daughters to grow up in a world to where they’re not going to be demonized because of the gender that God made them,” Jackson said. “And so, we’ve got to just fight back and demonstrate that we have a voice.”
Federal websites have begun to remove guidelines around DEI and Trump has said all DEI staff have to be put on paid leave. DEI policies are set in place to reduce workplace discrimination and increase opportunities for everyone, and according to Forbes, DEI gives companies a strategic advantage. Salem Hamilton, a protester, said she was there to protest Trump and his anti-DEI policies.
“I’m here to fight for the rights of everybody that I care about; to fight for the rights of what America was built on, which is people of color, indigenous people and everybody who is now being discriminated against by the current administration,” Hamilton said. “Everybody that I care about in my life is [either] queer, a woman or a person of color, and they’re all being affected by the policies that are put in place. I will not stand aside and let it happen quietly.”
The Trump administration has removed all mention of transgender or queer people from government websites. What was formerly LGBTQ, or in some cases LGBTQI+ has now become LGB or LGBI, across all government websites. Furthermore, one of Trump’s first executive orders was that the U.S. government would only recognize the male and female sex. Hamilton thinks that transgender people deserve recognition from the federal government.
“They’re people,” Hamilton said. “They’ve been people. They’ve been existing since the dawn of time. In different subcultures and in indigenous cultures, different ideas of gender have existed since the dawn of time and an executive order is not going to undo that.”
Sarah Vfee, a protester, said that the current administration is trying to get rid of gender diversity.
“I believe people being able to choose their own gender in different workplace settings and overall in our community is very important, and that is being challenged by our incoming president and individuals like Elon Musk,” Vfee said. “So, I’m here to stand up against that because I believe that’s the right side of history.”
Vfee said the current administration’s efforts directly affect their rights.
“I still don’t think that the president realizes that gender and sex are two different things, and there is a gradient on both of those,” Vfee said. “I, myself, am a person that identifies as non-binary, so being told that I have to pick one or the other is not who I am. Part of being a free person in the United States is my ability to choose my own gender and to be able to be my own gender.”
The three different protests were rooted in discontent with the Trump administration, with his approval ratings currently at 44%. Jackson left his office in the Capitol to give a short speech and speak with several protesters. He believes many of Trump’s policies violate the Constitution and is glad Georgians are using their voices to resist.
“What’s happening right now in the White House and at the federal government level is a travesty,” Jackson said. “Anybody that’s breaking the rules of law and breaking the Constitution and what it stands for is hurting all citizens: White, Black, old, young, gay and straight. We all have to have a voice, individually and collectively, to stand up and say, ‘we’re not going to take this.’”
Webb hopes the protest motivated more people to act on any concerns they hold about the Trump administration.
“I’m concerned, and I want to be a part of the resistance,” Webb said. “It shows us that we have a voice and that we’re not alone and feeling absolutely terrified about everything that’s going on. It gives a lot of hope.
Jackson hopes the protest will encourage Democrats to increase their energy for future elections. Some Democrats are hopeful that Trump will lose his majority in Congress in the 2026 midterm election. A Democrat-controlled Senate and House of Representatives would make it more difficult for Trump to pass controversial policy changes. Also, as the federal government returns power to the states for reproductive rights and other key issues, Jackson recognizes that state-level elections hold a higher stake.
“At the next election, we have to show up,” Jackson said. “We’ve got to start that mobilization right now. Those seats where they have Republicans, those who go against our interests, those who want to continue to push Roe v. Wade or remove reproductive freedom, we’ve got to fight those individuals who want to go against the very rights and freedoms and liberties for everybody.”
Smith said she cares about the country’s future and hopes people will continue to protest until politicians are forced to take notice.
“I hope that it gets larger and larger and larger and spreads to other communities, and that way, the president, Musk, the people in Congress, the people in the Senate, will see how totally hopeless we are in the country that we love. The country where we all have dreams and visions for family and loved ones, and they’re taking all of that away, literally.”
Since Jackson attended the Feb. 5 protest, the people of Atlanta have organized more demonstrations, including the Presidents’ Day protest and a “No Kings” protest scheduled for March 1 in Piedmont Park. Jackson hopes Georgia residents will continue pushing the government to meet their demands.
“We can’t just let this be one day,” Jackson said. “We’ve got to keep this fight going until we add enough pressure from the outside, so they can make the changes on the inside.”
Faw said many people were scared to protest due to intimidation and perceived threats from Republicans, including the president. According to Mark Esper, a former secretary of defense from the last Trump administration, President Trump once suggested the U.S. military shoot civilians to shut down a protest.
“I’m here today to support a protest to try to save America and save our democracy,” Faw said. “It’s that simple and people are scared. People are not showing up because they’re scared and because they’re intimidated. And I think we need to show that we’re here and not afraid.”
Democrats lost the House in 2022, as well as the Senate and presidency in 2024. Protestor Zach Simmons said protesting is the only option for people to fight against the Trump administration.
“We don’t have the House; we don’t have the Senate, and we don’t have the Supreme Court,” Simmons said. “All we have left is the streets.”
*Smith is an anonymous last name, Caren Smith chose to only be identified by first name
Fairlie Mercer is a junior and this is her second year writing for the Southerner. She currently writes for comment and is excited for her first year as an editor. Outside of journalism she enjoys hanging out with friends and dance.