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PROTEST + AMERICA
There’s More to the March: Why the Fight for Justice Is Getting Louder
Anti-Trump protests have more than doubled since 2017 — and it’s not just Black folks in the streets anymore.
The chants are familiar. The signs look the same. But the crowds? They’re changing.
In February 2017, just 937 protests were recorded across the United States. Eight years later, in February 2025, that number has more than doubled to over 2,085. And the catalyst, in many ways, is the same name that’s defined so much unrest over the past decade: Donald Trump.
But this isn’t 2017. The protests now are broader, louder, and more multiracial than many expected. “I went to the protest and surveyed the crowds and talked to people. There were some Black protestors, but not many relative to the large Black population in the city,” author and MSNBC analyst Charles Blow said while in Atlanta over the weekend.
While Black folks have always shown up, marched, and resisted — what we’re seeing in 2025 feels different. Not because we’re new to the fight. But because more people are now showing up beside us.
The moment isn’t new, but it is more crowded. And that alone begs the question: why now?
