No Kings and the Lure of Spectacle

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

22 Oct 2025

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The most recent No Kings march will hopefully be the last. A Democratic Party get out the vote effort is a show that obscures and obstructs the real work of organizing.

Many years ago the late Glen Ford, then the Black Agenda Report executive editor, related his experience with the One Million Man March, which took place on October 16, 1995, in Washington, DC. It was organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and was meant to be a day for Black men to “atone” for what were said to be their shortcomings. There were a multitude of opinions about whether Black men had to atone for anything at all, or whether its male orientation was sexist, or whether Farrakhan should have been the organizer. But on that day, the controversy was forgotten as somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million men attended.

Glen Ford was among them and years later he still expressed dismay at what he saw as a missed opportunity. Ford was of the opinion that the only reason to have 1 million people gather in one place was to make clear and cogent political demands. But he recalled that after many speakers came to the podium Farrakhan himself came to the stage, made obligatory thank yous to his fellow organizers and then began musing about numerology and its connections with United States history.

“There, in the middle of this mall, is the Washington Monument, 555 feet high. But if we put a 1 in front of that 555 feet, we get 1555, the year that our first fathers landed on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia as slaves. In the background are the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, each one of these monuments is 19 feet high.

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, and 16 and 3 make 19 again. What is so deep about the number 19? Why are we standing on the Capitol steps today? That number 19! When you have a nine, you have a womb that is pregnant. And when you have a one standing by the nine, it means that there’s something secret that has to be unfolded.”

Fortunately , Farrakhan had more to say other than those cosmic observations but Glen Ford was correct. There were no political demands for Black people that were connected with the One Million Man March. It is true that Minister Farrakhan never made a claim of making any political demands, but the fetishization of large-scale events persists to this day and that is why the recent No Kings actions on October 18, 2025, attracted some 7 million people across the country despite being of questionable value.

The impressive numbers for No Kings speak to the desperation that millions feel as the Donald Trump administration's “Big Beautiful Bill” would deprive millions of people of affordable health care or any health care at all. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are terrorizing immigrants and citizens alike as it raids apartment buildings, snatches minor children into the maw of detention, and inevitably kills people. Trump is preparing for war against Venezuela, while few in Congress or the public express any opposition.

The attraction of a large scale gathering is obvious. The history of mass action is an important one. Would there have been a Civil Rights Act without nationwide protest or an Environmental Protection Agency without the first Earth Day protest? We all say that the answer is no, but we miss other important points in thinking that marches alone brought change or neglect to ask ourselves who calls for a large-scale action and why.

The sponsoring organization for No Kings, Indivisible, is run by Democratic Party operatives. No Kings was a classic astroturf operation, giving the appearance of emerging from the grassroots when it was a top-down effort, endorsed by the likes of Hillary Clinton, the queen of neoliberalism, imperialism and political ineptitude, whose failure to get a handful of votes in swing states cost her the 2016 election and made Donald Trump president not once, but twice.

There can’t be an effective movement if most people still believe that having a supposedly lesser evil party in the white house or Congress is the answer to fighting Trump, or that Trump himself is the cause of every problem, or that all was well before he won a presidential election for the second time. The organization Indivisible is a Democratic Party operation and its goal is to keep its voters in the fold. In short, No Kings was a national get out the vote operation for democrats, a party that is committed to offering very little in the way of political change. Rallies bereft of political demands create exactly what the Democratic Party wants, energized voters who will show up at the polls determined to choose “blue no matter who,” and in the process give them carte blanche to do as they and their oligarchic patrons please.

The yearnings for affirmation and camaraderie are understandably appealing but also dangerous. Everyone feels better when marching with thousands of other people, but those good vibes don’t amount to much if there is no organizing behind the march and if there isn't a single-minded purpose among the participants. The March on Washington and Earth Day came about because real grassroots organizing took place first. The large-scale events occurred after smaller groups formed with concrete goals and missions and after they laid out their demands and after they formed coalitions with one another.

The same dynamics that can bring large numbers of people together can also be detrimental. In 1995, Black people were asking what we should do politically. One year earlier, in 1994, Bill Clinton passed a Crime Bill, which immediately put thousands of Black people at risk of mass incarceration. Clinton was still popular though and the contradictions of voting for someone whose agenda was inherently harmful meant that many people were looking for answers. So much so that they swore to atone when they didn’t need to and decided that being with one another would perhaps provide answers to their questions.

The question for Black people in 1995 and still in 2025 is “What should we do now?” There are a multitude of responses, which all too often boil down to voting for democrats in an effort to keep the white people's party, the republicans, out of office. Good attendance numbers can hide political weakness and the debates about the value of No Kings were proof.

Many people didn’t just argue in favor of participating but were angry if anyone questioned their decision. Responses ranged from feeling a need to do anything at all, to castigating those who chose not to take part as useless naysayers. While the backbiting went on there were communities in Chicago recording ICE agents, attempting to stop their kidnappings, and in the process risking arrest themselves. Wouldn’t it be more useful for their work to be replicated across the country, and for others to learn what to do when Trump sends federal law enforcement to their cities? In Tucson, Arizona, communities organized to force their city council to defeat a proposed Amazon data center and are still fighting after their local elected officials continue to collude with the corporate giant despite their opposition. Those are just two examples of effective organizing taking place and they should be shared with people whose energies would be of better use than claiming victory because they marched with thousands of others.

The One Million March is remembered as being a success, mostly because it took place at all. Yes, there were some individuals who organized together who ultimately did good work but the impact of having a huge Black organized march should have been bigger and better. In 1996 Black people still voted for Bill Clinton in huge numbers. Clinton pursued and won media consolidation that destroyed Black radio, and financial services deregulation, which years later cost Black people their homes in the real estate bubble.

Political action must start out small and determined. Any victories must then be shared among activists while big marches and electoral politics should be last on any agenda. If not, people will be in a crowd listening to numerological equations or following duplicitous political operatives who paved the way for Trump to be in office at all. Bigger is not always better. All politics are local and those strategies must be mastered before the next No Kings spectacle. Surely there will be one and hopefully there will be far fewer people in attendance.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.