As Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. blared from a distant car radio, hundreds of protesters gathered on Touhy Avenue between Summit and Prospect in Park Ridge for Saturday’s No Kings rally.
The protest began at noon; some held handmade signs, others honked their way towards activism from behind the wheel of passing vehicles.
Rev. Carol Hill, Senior Minister of Park Ridge Community Church, participated in the rally.
“In Park Ridge, residents and neighbors join together to unite our voices to the egregious wrongdoing of President Donald Trump and his administration,” Hill said. “ We join with others around the country, insisting on accountability.”.
Nan Parson, Park Ridge resident and Chair of local social justice advocacy organization, Action Ridge, said “we are one of many communities taking to the streets today – we want to make some noise – we say no thrones, no crowns, no kings – and we are determined not just to watch history, but to become a part of it.”
The rally was followed by a mile-long march down Prospect Avenue through the center of town.
“Our community has really stepped up today to express their dissatisfaction about what is happening in our country,” Parson said.
Local and national event partners took part, and crowds, according to organizers, were larger than ever before.
“Indivisible organized the national event, and we signed on,” Parson said.
Indivisible, according to their website, is a national movement of everyday people organizing on the ground in all 50 states to stop the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and to build on a real democracy that works for all of us.
According to the Indivisible site, what began in 2025 as a single day of defiance has become a sustained national resistance to tyranny, spreading from small towns to city centers and across every community determined to defend democracy.
Indivisible, Spotlight, Action Ridge, and the ACLU all partnered on the event.
Parson says, in Park Ridge, they are looking for support on three main petitions.
The first, urging Congress to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, the second, demanding that the Park Ridge City Council forbid ICE from using city property, and the third, demanding that the D 64 Elementary School District forbid ICE from using school property.
Lisa Kodanis of Glenview attended Saturday.
“We are out here to raise awareness because it seems like our country is going backward instead of forward,” Kodanis said.
Marie Downes of Park Ridge also participated.
“We never envisioned that during our lifetime we would have a president who would make unilateral decisions about war without support from Congress,” Downes said.
Karen Finn of Park Ridge also took part.
“I am a woman, I have a gay son, and my husband is an immigrant; I am here to stand for equality,” Finn said.
Marty Maloney, Mayor, City of Park Ridge, said when our nation feels uncertain or even rudderless, that uncertainty doesn’t stay in Washington—it reaches into our communities, our families and our daily lives.
“I am proud of this peaceful protest, because civic engagement, especially in moments like this, is how we begin to find our way forward, together,” Maloney said.
Gina Grillo is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
