The Town of Davidson mobilized for May Day, a day of nationwide protests, last Thursday, May 1. Photos by Campbell Walker ‘25.
Upwards of 400 people rallied on the Davidson Town Green and marched down Main Street as part of nation-wide protests against the Trump Administration. May Day rallies, a tradition that dates back to 1886, take place each year around the world on May 1 to advocate for labor rights. Two days after President Trump marked his first 100 days in office, this year’s demonstrators were also focused on immigration, education and the stability of American democracy.
Protesters denounced what they saw as a disregard for due process and the Bill of Rights, as well as plans to cut jobs from the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and the vilification of the press.
“We’ve kind of lost the foundations of our country, which is the Bill of Rights,” Allison Wilhelm, a Cornelius resident, said as the crowd marched down Main Street. “When you lose due process, when you lose freedom of the press, when he’s [President Trump] vindictively going after the press and going after schools—these are the foundations of our country. It’s just appalling.”
Indivisible Lake Norman, the local chapter of the nationwide organization, Indivisible, founded in response to President Trump’s first term, organized Davidson’s May Day rally. Demonstrators gathered on the Town Green outside of the Davidson Library, marched down Griffith Street to Roosevelt Wilson Park and returned to the Green. Jane Booth, a Mooresville resident, said she’d been attending as many protests as possible in recent weeks.
“May 1 is May Day, and May Day historically is a cry for help, for crisis, and that’s where we are in our nation today,” Booth said. “We are saying ‘hands off our democracy.’ We want our programs back in place that the Trump administration is dismantling, and we are here to fight for our freedom.”
Honking cars followed the crowd down to the park as people chanted “Immigrants are welcome here, no hate, no fear” and “No king no crown, we the people won’t back down.” Patrice Vincent, who came to the rally with a friend, carried a homemade sign that read “Ikea has better cabinets.”
“I’m just tired of what he’s doing: immigration issues, what he’s doing with the man from El Salvador and these kids that are now being sent away,” Vincent said. “It’s like when it was the first time around and he had families locked up in cages. I just feel like it’s all coming back, deja vu, and we can’t go there again.”
The “man from El Salvador” is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran who was deported from the U.S. in March despite a 2019 judicial order barring him from being sent there. The Trump administration accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang, something that both his wife and attorney deny. The “kids” Vincent mentions were in reference to three children, all of whom are US citizens, who were deported last week.
Concerns for due process and the protection the Bill of Rights were a reoccurring motivation for many protesters.
“Stop taking rights away from people,” Betty Frank, a safety marshal for the event, said. “They’re not following the rule of law, which I think is really important. Every human being deserves due process. That is our law, and the law is not being followed. Rights are being taken away. So I’m going to continue this work.”
Jane Laurencelle, who lives in Cornelius, said her primary motivation for coming out was to protest proposed changes at the VA. The VA is planning to cut more than 80,000 jobs, including personnel who staff the Veterans Crisis Line.
“I’m most disturbed about the cuts [to] the VA because my husband was a veteran,” Laurencelle said. “My stepdaughter works at the VA hospital. The worst is for the suicide hotline, they need that.”
Attendees noted a significance in the demonstrations taking place across the street from Davidson’s campus, and some had messages for students.
“My message to them would be to study history, because it’s repeating itself,” Brent Eicher said while holding a sign with the message “Fox News isn’t real, you know that right?” “I’ve been to Auschwitz twice, and I don’t like what I’m seeing here at all.”
The majority of demonstrators were residents of Davidson and surrounding cities like Mooresville and Cornelius, but there were also some students in attendance. Sören Potthoff ‘27, Henry Coy ‘27 and Anta Lo ‘27 came to the rally together, each saying they wanted to be more politically engaged.
“It’s easy to feel helpless and fall into the trap of political nihilism,” Potthoff said. “It’s an understandable impulse, because it is in a lot of ways very helpless, and there isn’t much you can do. But the things that you can do, you should, and when it’s right in your backyard you might as well.”
Coy’s mother is a local community organizer and encouraged him to get involved in the May Day protests.
“We need young people in the movement because we have more energy,” Coy said. “If we’re going to walk to Washington it can’t be all 60-year-olds, right?”