JACKSON, Miss. — April Rowland, an Oxford, Miss., resident with 18 years of experience working in special education, says she was “frustrated at what I see going on in our government” when she discovered the 50501 Movement on social media. She saw it as an opportunity to “help make some positive change” in Mississippi.
She attended her first 50501 protest on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 17, after she saw a national call to protest that day. At the rally at the Mississippi Capitol Building in Jackson, she started networking with the attendees and realized no one was leading the organization of protests in Mississippi.
“By the next week, I saw that there wasn’t organizing going on in Mississippi, and I wanted to help stop that gap because I didn’t want Mississippi left behind in this movement just for lack of organizing,” Rowland told the Mississippi Free Press in April.
She was the “mastermind” behind 50501 Mississippi, co-organizer and Jackson resident Kathleen Obeirne told the Mississippi Free Press. Rowland and Obeirne met through mutual friends after Trump was elected in 2024, when the pair were both trying to be more involved politically in Mississippi.
The organization is set to hold another protest in Jackson at noon on Saturday, June 14. It’s one of seven protests across the state, including in Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Hernando, Oxford, Starkville and Tupelo. NoKings.org lists those protests, times and locations along with hundreds of others across the country.
The latest protest comes during a time of mounting tension after President Donald Trump deployed the U.S. National Guard and U.S. Marines in response to largely peaceful protests in Los Angeles, California, opposing his administration’s targeting of local immigrants.
‘This Is What Democracy Looks Like’
More than 400 people held decorated signs while chanting, “This is what democracy looks like” as they protested the Trump administration’s first 89 days while marching around the block of the Mississippi Capitol building on a warm, sunny day in downtown Jackson in April.
“Everything we knew about who we are is under attack,” Waikinya Clanton, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mississippi office, told protesters at the rally on April 19 while standing in the shady patch of grass adjacent to the Capitol building. “My question to you is, ‘Are you prepared to fight back?’”
“Yes,” the crowd shouted back, as the speaker encouraged them to be even louder.
Protesters on April 19 and May 1 called for removing President Donald Trump and his cabinet, including the since-departed Elon Musk, from office. Attendees also raised their voices to call for the government to reverse policies that cause harm to immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, voters and people of color. They also protested against the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and efforts to limit citizens’ speech and press freedoms.
The April 19 rally was one of dozens that happened across the country on April 19 as part of the 50501 Movement’s Day of Action. Dozens of Mississippians also attended protests in Gulfport, Hattiesburg and Hernando.
“Right now, what I’m the most concerned about is saving our democracy and seeing respect for the rule of law preserved, making sure our three coequal branches of government stay coequal branches of government. I think that right there takes precedence over any single issue,” protest attendee and co-organizer Kathleen Obeirne, a Jackson resident, told the Mississippi Free Press on April 18.
A smaller number of protesters gathered outside the front of the Capitol on May 1, joining thousands of other protesters across the country as part of International Workers’ Day. The May 1 rally was the fifth 50501 protest in Jackson since Trump entered office in January. The most recent 50501 protest was on May 24.
Scott Crawford, a retired neuropsychologist and advocate for people with disabilities, was one of several speakers who shared messages while standing on the Capitol steps on May 1.
“I’m here to tell this regime, ‘We will resist,’” Crawford said as the crowd of protesters erupted into cheers. One man exclaimed, “Hell yeah, by God,” while clapping enthusiastically.
Protesters Hope to Gain Attention of Mississippi’s Elected Officials
April Rowland said that although she was protesting against the Trump administration, she also found herself thinking, “How can we ensure this doesn’t happen again?” One way, she said, was to encourage people to register to vote and then go vote in all elections, including local and statewide elections, instead of only focusing on national elections.
“We want the people that are representing us to be reflective of what we want in our government,” she said.
On April 19, one protester held a sign featuring pictures of U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republicans who represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate, next to the words, “Your silence is complicity” written in blue and red. Several other protesters also held signs that day, drawing attention to the senators’ silence on Trump’s decisions during his first three months in office.
“I want our elected officials to see that their constituents are paying attention. A lot of us are very disappointed in the failure of our elected officials to stand up for us, their constituents. And in place of standing up for us, a lot of them are standing up for the tyrant occupying the White House, and I think that is in dereliction of their oath to support and uphold the Constitution,” Kathleen Obeirne said.
On May 1, a protester held up a sign depicting Trump, Alfred E. Neuman, Hyde-Smith and Wicker wearing crowns with the caption, “Tariffs? What, me worry?” written in large red letters. Alfred E. Neuman was the fictitious mascot of Mad Magazine who became a cultural phenomenon with his catchphrase of, “What, me worry?”
Seven speakers shared messages explaining why they were protesting as attendees gathered in the shady patch of grass adjacent to the Mississippi Capitol Building on April 19. Tougaloo College Student Body President Terry Rogers brought attention to the fact that the American Revolution began on April 19, 1775, and that America’s earlier founders spoke against tyrannical kings.
“We in America do not want to live in a tyrant government, so we’re going to start our own revolution right now, and you’re doing it,” Terry Rogers, who is also the chairman of the College Democrats of America Christian Caucus, told the protesters on April 19.
50501 Mississippi plans to hold its next protest on the front steps of the Mississippi Capitol Building in Jackson on June 14 at 12 p.m.