Peaceful ‘No Kings’ protest in Fort Worth brings together diverse crowd
Saturday morning started quietly as organizers and rally goers set up tables, chairs and tents inside Burnett Park for the “March of Dissent” and “No Kings” rally.
The “March of Dissent,” which kicked off the day’s events, was organized by Sabrina Ball from Indivisible 12. Ball said that the country is undergoing an authoritarian shift.
“Texas is supporting it. The Texas MAGA GOP and the Texas Legislature is supporting that, and they’re focused,” Ball said. “They’re taking over our higher public education institutions, causing a brain drain, and delegitimizing those institutions. It’s going to hurt Texas. Christian nationalism in schools, they’re force-feeding the Ten Commandments down our kids’ throats while simultaneously pulling back food assistance to those kids.”
By noon, the park and surrounding sidewalks had started to fill up, despite the 90-degree temperature. Families with younger children came out to join, and many echoed the need to focus and teach their kids about their rights. The crowd was in the thousands during the peak of the protest.
“It’s a great way to teach them civics. It’s a great way to teach them that part of being an American is to stand up for your rights and to peacefully protest,” Caitlin Milligan said. “Secondly, we are raising our children to be kind human beings and accepting human beings, and we want to start by demonstrating that with our actions and letting them participate in that.”
Fort Worth City Council member Chris Nettles was at the rally with council member Elizabeth Beck. Nettles highlighted the growing diversity in the city and the need for local officials to see that.
“I think today is a pure image of just not our diversity, but about us coming together as a unit,” Nettles said. “You see a crowd of people from all types of backgrounds here in Fort Worth — Fort Worth is very engaged in what’s happening here in Tarrant County and around the state of Texas.”
It wasn’t only families but also friends who came out to protest together. Longtime friends Alba Ferro and Naomi Montez said they joined the protest because of the current state of affairs regarding immigrant rights in the country.
“We’re Latinos, we’re Latinas, we’re Hispanic, and what they’re doing is criminal,” Ferro said. “It’s really criminal. And I wanted to be here today of change, day in history to be meaningful, to give back, and wanted to be on the right side of history.”
They said that there is so much at stake right now, and people need to read and find out if these things are true. Find out what’s actually happening in congressional hearings, in the Senate and get educated.
“I have family members who voted for him, and I’m just like, I don’t understand,” Ferro said. “How can I see with eyes wide open, what other people are seeing that choose to have blinders on until it affects them?”
The event was, by and large, peaceful; there were a few people who were there as counter-protesters.
Gary Bennett, a former U.S. Navy veteran, was peacefully counter-protesting with a sign that said “We support the F.B.I., police, and We love the U.S.A.”
“We’re trying to keep peace. I brought over 40 people in the United States in the late ‘80s, the right way, 40 from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras. There’s ways to come legally,” Bennett said. “I welcome immigrants. I’m Irish, we’re all immigrants except for the Indians, and we gave them a bad deal, still do.”
Bennett said that he and other veterans did their job so protesters could come out today.
“We did, so we could do this right here. I support what they’re doing,” Bennett said. “That’s theirs. I support everything that they’re doing, just not what they’re saying.”
As one unidentified man tried to disrupt the speeches volunteers in purple vests stepped in to de-escalate the situation.
While the event remained peaceful throughout the day, organizers feared that the online comments made by Tarrant County GOP chair Bo French on X would incite violence. There were also several threatening comments on the DFW Scanner Facebook page Friday night in response to a post cautioning people about traffic and police presence in North Texas due to the protests.
Indivisible Fort Worth organizer Eddie Delgado said that this was a rally to gather the community and to get people moving in a common direction.
“I think today is a very sound message to leadership that we have had enough as people,” Delgado said. “We have had enough of the tyranny. We have had enough of the authoritarianism. We’re tired of our brown skinned brothers and sisters being ripped from their families unnecessarily.”
This story was originally published June 14, 2025 at 7:27 PM.