Local participation in the third installment of the nationwide No Kings protests started with about 50 to 60 people making the "sidewalk march" from Luetta Moore Park to the Bulloch County Courthouse at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. But other participants were already there, and the crowd grew to 270 or so during the 11 a.m.-1 p.m. rally.

So that was a smaller crowd that the approximately 450 people one key Statesboro organizer estimated had turned out during the second No Kings rally on Oct. 18, 2025. But at least two other events competed more or less directly with Saturday's protest. The first was at Luetta Moore Park itself, where the Positive Childhood Alliance Bulloch and other family support organizations and vendors were holding the 2026 Stronger Together Family Picnic and Resource Fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

So parking for No Kings marchers was limited in the vicinity of the park. Some walked there from downtown before starting the march along the sidewalk — where no parade permit was needed — by a route chosen for visibility rather than directness.

"No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here!" was one of the first chants as the sign-carrying group strolled along the nearest sidewalk on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive north to Northside Drive, AKA Highway 80.

"Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!" went a call and response shouted there and repeated when, after traipsing over to North Main, the marchers turned southward toward the courthouse.

On the courthouse lawn, things were beginning to look a lot like that second local "No Kings" in October, or even the first one last June 14.

For example, Jeannie Parker, 79, was seated there on her walker with a sign that stated, "Save Our Country. impeach Felon 47 + Fire Them All," and noted that this was the third time her sign had appeared there at a rally.

Several people spoke briefly from a microphone stand near the southern porch of the courthouse. Some clergy members were among the speakers this time.

'We are not afraid'

First up was Clint Tawes, an aspiring Unitarian Universalist minister who talked about "We Shall Overcome" as not only "the spiritual that became the anthem of the civil rights movement' but a song in which he finds "solace and reassurance when … feeling most overwhelmed."

"Nothing frightens the powerful more than ordinary people organizing, finding their collective voice and realizing that they are not alone," Tawes said.

One verse was added to the song in 1958, he explained, when state and local law enforcement officers raided the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, which served as a training center for civil rights movement organizers. After police cut off the electricity and started searching trainees' belongings in the dark, Jamila Jones, "a 14-year-old girl who refused to stay silent" spontaneously started to sing the new verse, "We are not afraid. We are not afraid. We are not afraid, today!"

'No Christian nationalism'

When he came to the microphone, the Rev. Todd Hoover, a retired Episcopal priest, was carrying a posterboard "Love They Neighbor" sign and wearing an informal "Air Force" cap. A clerical collar peeked out from the neckline of his sweater.

When required to attend Air Force chapel service in Basic Training at age 18, he had questioned whether this was a violation of separation of church and state. Hoover served eight years in the Air Force.

Later, when he became a priest, he learned how important that separation had been to America's founding fathers, he said. The founders acted to separate their new government from the Church of England, which was the parent church of U.S. Episcopalian churches.

"That was 250 years ago. We need to remember that: No kings, no church in state, and no Christian nationalism," Hooever said. "I am wearing my collar today because Generation Z believes the church needs to step up for causes like this. The church needs to step up for separation of church and state and teach people, 'Love thy neighbor,' and the neighbor is everybody."

While he was talking, a protester nearby, wearing a mask emblazoned with a Batman symbol, carried a flag that suggested the Caped Crusader "hates pedophiles …" and sported a black apron with a three-word obscene message directed at the president.

Event in context

The organizer who was asked again for a crowd estimate was Julianna Leverette, who obtains the permits for use of the courthouse grounds from the Sheriff's Office,

"We did a tally count, and we're at 268, so we're just shy of 300 today, with people coming in and out," Leverette said around noon, about an hour into the two-hour rally.

Acknowledging that Saturday was busy with other events, she said that No Kings participants tend to be "community centric" people and noted that some felt they had to choose between events. The 10th Annual GreenFest, organized by Keep Statesboro-Bulloch Beautiful, was held one block away on East Vine Street but began at 1 p.m. and ended at 5 p.m.

"I would love to see any of our community members out and engaged in whatever way is speaking to them and empowers them," said Leverette. "I know we had a lot of powerful and empowering events today."

She said she wanted to emphasize that the No Kings message is nonpartisan.

But the Bulloch County Democratic Committee and the Young Democrats, as well as the Statesboro Migrant Support Group and Indivisible Statesboro GA12, were listed on publicity fliers as participating organizations.

Billed as "No Kings 3, Statesboro, GA," the local happening was one of more than 50 in Georgia dotted on the "No Kings National Day of Mobilization" map at www.nokings.org. More than 3,000 such events were held across the nation Saturday.