Hundreds of protesters with Project 50501 gathered at the south entrance of the Texas Capitol in Austin on Wednesday to protest President Donald Trump’s actions during his first weeks in office.
At peak attendance, organizers said there were about 300 people gathered in front of the Capitol for the demonstration, wielding signs, flags, T-shirts, masks and noisemakers during the five-hour protest.
Other demonstrators gathered at the junction between Congress Avenue and 11th Street wearing split Mexican and American flags to show support to passing motorists, filling the lulls in the demonstration with honks of support.
Signs at the rally denounced Trump’s plan to build a migrant detention center at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, threats of mass federal layoffs by Elon Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency and the new administration’s goal of mass deportation of undocumented migrants.
Texas topics also joined the national ones at the protests. Several demonstrators brandished signs reading “Abort Abbott” in protest of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s support for laws to restrict access to abortions. Close to the end of the demonstration, the crowd roared with the chant “F*** Greg Abbott!”
Cheers from the protestors could be heard from inside the gallery of the Texas Senate as the chamber took up floor debate on a $1 billion measure to subsidize private school tuition.
The crowd was limited to just a few dozen at the beginning of the demonstration at 11 a.m. but swelled to at least 200 by 1 p.m. A bare mist midday and the subsequent humidity it brought in did not deter the spectators.
Similar protests took place at state capitols across the country. Project 50501 alludes to the 50 protests to occur in 50 states in one day.
