If you had driven through Graham early last month, you may have seen a group of people protesting on the square. The people of Graham felt like they needed to express their feelings about how this country is being run after the recent election. For Graham, being the small town that it is, it was surprising to see roughly around 50 people protesting for their rights and beliefs.
On February 2nd, there was a protest on the square, which was started by Kaylee Clay. She decided to post a poster on Facebook detailing an everything protest where those could protest for what they believe in. These could range from LGBTQ+ Rights, Women’s Rights, and even Immigration. On the day of the protest, most people decided to protest against immigration, but there were still a few others protesting for other things. At the protest itself, the people were peaceful as they only stood alongside each other and displayed their signs. For the protesters, there were tacos and water if they wanted any. The protestors stood on the left side of the square, but on the right side, there were Trump supporters with their trucks to sort of contrast the people protesting their rights.
I participated in this protest, yet I joined an hour late because I had to work. I was there for a majority of the events that took place. Overall, nothing happened apart from us standing with our signs and listening to Hispanic music. We had a lot of supporters driving by, letting us know that they liked our cause. Similarly, we also had people cussing us out and flipping us off. Sometime in the middle of the protest, a lady swerved near the crowd, almost hitting some of us while yelling. She had what we believed to be her granddaughter waving a United States flag out the sun roof. She drove off without causing any harm to us, but it still scared some of us as we thought she was trying to run us over. Later on, some lady from the other side with the Trump supporters came over to talk to one of the main people behind the protest. She asked questions along the lines of, “If you don’t like the US, why are you still here?” and many more. There was a video of another lady yelling at us, but that was before I had arrived at the protest.
On the original Facebook post, it was said that the protest would range from 2-5 PM, but the protestors stayed till 6 PM because they still had some spirit in them. It had started to get dark, so people decided it would be best to call it quits as they believed they got their message through. On this day, history was made for the community of Graham as they shared and expressed their feelings with the United States at the time. I wonder if the spirit of these protestors will lead to many more protests later down the line.
