Hundreds of UA students, faculty and Tuscaloosa residents rallied in front of the Richard Shelby Federal Building and Courthouse Saturday in protest of what they see as government overreach and anti-democratic practices under President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Members of the progressive activist organization Indivisible, along with local organizations, planned “Hands Off! Tuscaloosa” in concordance with over 1,300 protests across all 50 states. The protest also comes less than a week after Tuscaloosans protested the detaining of UA doctoral student Alireza Doroudi at the same location.
Heather Love, an organizer for Indivisible and assistant professor in the University’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies, said that the protest wasn’t a response to any one recent event, but rather a community standing up for the rights of each other.
“Alabama is not a lost cause state,” she said. “We do care about these issues, we are willing to stand up for our rights, and we do have people that will come together when we need to.”
Love said that she hadn’t been involved in protest movements until recently but was called to action by the lack of response from her local representatives.
“This is a starting point to show the administration that the American public is not happy with how things are going,” she said. “We will stand up and fight against what’s happening when we have to, and we’ll continue as long as we have to.”
John Dill, former Navy sailor, said that he was “disgusted” by the direction the nation was turning in.
“Trump and his group got elected, and they started dismantling our government,” he said. “They started going after all the vulnerable people in our country, going after immigrants … trans people. Everything they’ve done is just to harm people.”
Michaela Moody, a senior majoring in social work, said she was drawn to the event due to similar ones on campus. She brought a sign to the protest reading “Hands off our social work curriculum,” referencing the changes to social work classes after the passage of SB129.
“There are restrictions on the types of projects that they’re able to do, and I think that that’s really unfair,” Moody said. “It’s limiting them and their ability to have a full education that they could have in another state.”
Jacob Summers, owner of Bars and Stripes, an LGBTQ+ friendly gym in Northport, said he attended the rally because he likes to stand by his principles.
“If I’m going to stand by my people and stand against what I think is hurting our country, then we have to be out here and represent,” he said. “I think the only way anything’s gonna change is if we stand up and show visibly that we’re here and that we oppose what’s going on.”
Dill also voiced concerns about cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which he worried could decrease the quality of care received by older veterans like his father who receives healthcare from VA. He said the cuts to jobs would impact everyone across the country, and that people are already feeling the changes in their wallets.
“It may get bad enough to where the people that voted for him start to realize that maybe owning the libs isn’t worth it when your 401k is worth nothing,” Dill said.
Miriam Right, a Tuscaloosa resident, spoke out about potential cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. She said if the government missed one of her checks she might be in serious financial trouble. Right added that she has participated in activism in the Tuscaloosa community since the ‘60s.
“We got to sing protest songs with Jerry Butler,” she said. “It’s very possible to be joyful and resistant at the same time.”
Michael Cornwell, an attorney, veteran of the Vietnam War, and former University instructor and alum, voiced his commitment to progressivism and democracy.
“My main motivation is I’m a veteran, and I took an oath to defend the Constitution,” Cornwell said. “I’m a lawyer, and I took an oath to defend the Constitution.”
He said that he sees “the Constitution being shredded” even by “so-called U.S. attorneys” who are “whoring themselves before Trump.”
“As a lawyer, I have to say one of the most stressful, disgusting and hurtful things is those damn big law firms caving to Trump,” Cornwell said. “It’s clear he wants to make an autocracy, a dictatorship.”
