By Alexis Taylor
AFRO Managing Editor
Hundreds gathered in front of Baltimore City Hall on April 5 to shame the 47th president of the United States and members of his administration for actions taken since Inauguration Day 2025.
From coast to coast and in cities abroad, everyday Americans joined community leaders, legislators, immigrants and all those targeted by recent executive orders signed in the White House to say “Hands Off.”
“We’re angry today because we see what’s on the horizon– more of the same foolishness from Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” said Congressman Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.-07).
Speaking directly to the president, Mfume said “Donald Trump, you’ve heard it from me so many times– you might as well hear it again– leave our medicaid and medicaid alone! Leave social security alone! Leave food programs for children alone! Leave the Department of Education alone!”
“We’ve got too many Congressional Republicans who have not grown a spine yet,” Mfume told the crowd. “This is a constitutional fight to save the document that has protected us all these many years. It is a legal fight…we’ve had 125 court challenges. We’ve won 53 and we’re waiting to win some more.”
On Jan. 20 the president slashed initiatives that supported equity, diversity and inclusion; pardoned convicted criminals from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building; withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization and more. He also established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), put billionaire Elon Musk in charge and began dismissing thousands of federal workers in the name of cutting “fraud, waste and abuse.”
In February he fired Chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Gwynne Wilcox. NLRB members do the crucial work of “acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by private sector employers and unions,” according to material released by the agency. The president also fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the 21st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his top military advisor.
In March, after months of defunding, the current administration dealt a final crippling blow to the United States Agency for International Development. Cuts were made to the agency that left aid workers stranded in foreign lands, some in the midst of violent conflict. The Department of Education also came under fire.
There has been talk of annexing Greenland and Canada, a public spat with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a scandal involving attack plans texted in error to a journalist just hours before being carried out.
Now, consumers are bracing for a price increase on everything from cars to groceries and more.
In an April 2 announcement, White House officials detailed plans for “a 10 percent tariff on all countries,” with more slated to take effect on April 9. On April 4 markets responded to the news.
The Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) fell from 5,670.97 on April 2 to 5,074.08 on April 4, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 2,000 points.
The tariffs went into effect on April 5 at 12:01 a.m., just hours before the protests began.
When asked why she came out, Kenya Campbell, president of the Maryland branch of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT-Maryland), said “We don’t have time to stay home.”
A March 20 executive order mandated that officials begin to “facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.” In January, DOE had 4,133 workers. That number will be 2,183 workers by the time the reduction in force plan is complete. The order says it expects a DOE dismantling, all “while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Campbell told the AFRO the executive order would significantly impact schools on the local level that need the trickle down of funding to support students in reaching their educational goals.
“The least I could do, as the leader of my organization, is to let our members know we have their back,” she said. “For my educators and well as paraprofessionals and state workers- we want to make sure we provide resources for folks and give them hope.”
Baltimore native Brian Cox said he came because it seems like America is regressing into a time where racial hatred was normal.
“I was born in 1963,” he said. “I didn’t think I would have to do this at 62, but here I am.”
Cox said he vividly remembers the first time he was called “the n-word.” The sting of the incident has stuck with him through the decades.
“I was five,” he said. “Even at that age, you get a sense of who is and who is not valued. Around that age I remember I told my mom ‘I wish I was White,” because I didn’t see Black people on television or any of that.”
“You feel the devaluation,” said Cox. “My sister just had two young children. I don’t want them to have to go through that and it seems like we’re sliding back to it.”
Corena Bridges, a 72-year-old retiree who was “born, and raised and educated in Maryland, knows a thing or two about protests.
“People have to get in the street and stay in the street,” she said. “I marched against the Vietnam War when I was just coming out of high school.”
“You fight for so many rights and then those rights are rolled back and you have to fight all over again. Civil rights, women’s rights…I’m not afraid for myself, but I’m afraid for my grand nieces and nephews,” Bridges said. “They won’t have the same rights that I had- that my generation fought for. I’m worried the next generation is going to lose those rights.”
While Black people could be seen in the crowd, and multiple African- Americans speakers took to the microphone, representation was thin.
At least one legislator wondered aloud if anyone had advertised the event with the Black Press.
Since the new presidential administration came into power, some Black people have taken to social media to say they are sitting out public demonstrations because now is the time for White allies with supporters of the current administration in their family and friend groups to take the lead.
Cox said he understands the people who have said they are done protesting and marching for the next four years.
“As much as I do get it, if you don’t do something— can you legitimately complain? You can’t sit back and do nothing,” he said. “It starts with you.”
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