JACKSON, Miss.— “Brick-by-brick, wall-by-wall, this racist system has to fall,” dozens of attendees from activist groups chanted as they marched from the Mississippi Capitol to the governor’s mansion in downtown Jackson, Miss., on a cold and sunny Martin Luther King Jr. Day. About 1,000 miles away, Donald Trump was taking the oath of office in Washington, D.C., for the second time.
The marchers raised their voices against Project 2025, in support of environmental justice and in favor of the rights of workers, immigrants and LGBTQ+ people during the protest on Jan. 20. The group of left-wing Mississippians who came out to oppose the new administration’s policies also called for an end to the rule of billionaires in American political life and spoke out against Israel’s 14-month assault on Gaza, which they described as a genocide. Mediators announced a ceasefire deal on Jan. 15.
“From Palestine to Mexico, border walls have got to go,” the activists shouted as they marched around downtown Jackson. For over a year, left-wing activists across the country, including in Mississippi, have also protested against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“We want people to join this new working-class movement that we’re building that centers working-class people who are going to be affected by not only Project 2025, but all these far-right policies emerging at the state and local level,” Party for Socialism and Liberation member Terron Weaver, a Tupelo, Miss., resident and community organizer with Mississippi for a Just World, told the Mississippi Free Press on Jan. 20.
Many of Trump’s actions in his first days in office on immigration, DEI, the environment and federal bureaucracy align with the Heritage Foundation’s proposals in Project 2025, which Trump denied knowing anything about during the 2024 campaign—despite previously endorsing the conservative organization’s efforts to create a roadmap for his second term during a 2022 speech.
The groups that organized the protests include the Party for Socialism and Liberation of Mississippi, Mississippi Rising Coalition, Immigrants Aligned for Justice and Equity, Tupelo Mutual Aid, DeSoto Mutual Arts Collective, Veterans for Peace Mississippi and the Green Party of Mississippi.
“Even though they promised an administration that would be good for working-class people, it’s clear that their agenda is only to fatten the pockets of billionaires,” Weaver said.
On his first day in office, Trump signed a raft of executive actions, including orders to drop out of the Paris Climate Agreement and declare a “national drilling emergency” to suspend certain environmental regulations, like the Endangered Species Act, allowing fossil fuel drilling projects to begin immediately without regulatory delays.
The president also issued an executive order stating that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” making it official policy for the federal government to rescind legal recognitions of transgender Americans. He reversed a Biden administration policy that allowed transgender people to serve in the military under another executive order.
Trump issued another executive order ending government diversity, equity and inclusion programs, pausing hiring for government positions and ordering federal employees to return to in-office work full-time.
Leah Wilson, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, spoke to attendees about honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights activists by lifting up the working class to tear down the current “system of exploitation” and build a new one through “liberation.” Trump entered office with the richest man in the world, Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, and other tech billionaires at his side, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. During the 2024 campaign, Musk used a Super PAC to pump $224 million into efforts to support Trump’s election.
Wilson reflected on how Mississippi played a central political part in rolling back federal abortion rights by adopting the law that led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. the Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.
“Organizing in the deep South is organizing in the belly of the beast,” she told the crowd of about 30 people on Jan. 20.
By hosting the rally outside the Capitol, where lawmakers craft and pass legislation, and the mansion where the governor lives, Weaver said the protestors were spotlighting how the local and state government enforces Trump’s agenda. Auditor Shad White has continuously called for the end of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in state government and public schools. He and Gov. Tate Reeves also vocalized support for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the “Gulf of America” after Trump declared plans to do so.
“Maybe (the Mississippi Legislature) could pass a bill changing any sign mentioning the gulf to ‘Gulf of America.’ I just volunteered to cut my own budget by $1 million, so you’ve already got the money for the signs! This administration is going to be a blast,” White posted on X on Jan. 7.
Trump issued an executive order changing the name to the Gulf of America this week for purposes of the U.S. government, but internationally, it remains the Gulf of Mexico.
Weaver said he hoped the protest on Monday would encourage people to join local people-focused activist organizations and team up to fight billionaires’ control over the country.
“We have to keep up not just the energy, but that optimism that people can change things with enough action and enough force,” he said.