During decades of working as a reporter, I’ve attended hundreds of protests around America and abroad, providing news coverage about those events.

During the recent nationwide day of “No Kings” protests, I did something I haven’t done since becoming a journalist in 1975: attend a protest as a participant, not as a reporter.

This participation was a continuing exercise of my First Amendment rights — not the press freedom right but the often-overlooked last of the five First Amendment protections: the right of U.S. citizens to “petition the Government for redress of grievances.”

Like many of the senior citizens among the 3,000 at the rally I attended, I oppose schemes on Capitol Hill that sabotage Social Security and other social safety net pillars. My list of grievances also include opposition to the callousness, incompetence and bigotry that reigns throughout the Trump administration.

I attended one of the five No Kings protests held in Delaware — nicknamed The First State due to its historic distinction as the first of the original 13 states to ratify the U.S. Constitution (in December 1787).

While the U.S. Constitution does not mention a king, America’s Declaration of Independence — the document that helped birth the Constitution — contains over two dozen condemnations of a king. Some of the condemnations in that Declaration against the then King of England echo today.

• • The Declaration of Independence condemned the King for his refusal to follow “laws.” President Trump has flaunted laws and court rulings since reentering the White House in January 2025.
  • The Declaration assailed the King for keeping “large bodies of armed troops among us” without the consent of local authorities. The Trump administration recently ordered thousands of National Guard plus a contingent of Marines into Los Angeles over the objections of that city’s Mayor and California’s Governor. President Trump also declared his intent to send soldiers into other big cities to aid his mass deportation crusade, particularly cities controlled by Democrats like Philadelphia and Chicago.
  • The Declaration denounced the King for actions “cutting off trade” by Americans with other countries. Trump’s tariffs curtail trade freedom.
  • The Declaration of Independence reminds us that a tyrant is “unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” Many protest signs displayed at those No Kings rallies castigated perceived tyrannies of Trump’s administration.

The Delawareans who performed a constitutionally patriotic duty through participation in those No Kings protests helped counter the aberrant act of one Delaware resident during the attack at the U.S. Capitol by violent supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.

I oppose schemes on Capitol Hill that sabotage Social Security and other social safety net pillars. My list of grievances also include opposition to the callousness, incompetence and bigotry that reigns throughout the Trump administration.

That Delawarean carried a large Confederate flag into the Capitol building, where at one point, he used the tip of that flagpole to threaten a policeman who was protecting U.S. Senators from Trump’s mob. This Delawarean, who served a short prison term for his January 6 crimes, was among the 1,500 insurrectionists Trump pardoned on the first day of his second presidential term.

One small sign displayed at that Delaware protest has a large meaning: Prevent Truth Decay. One of the most insidious aspects of Trump’s tyranny are the assaults on truth from trashing scientific achievements to suppressing historical facts.

The need for truth is evident with that Confederate flag carrier. He reportedly told FBI agents that he didn’t view that flag as a symbol of racist hate. The Confederacy was rooted in racial hatred — the determination to maintain slavery. Delaware — the First State — was among the last states to formally ratify the 13th Amendment that outlawed slavery.

The aversion to certain unsettling truths by many Americans predates Trump administration assaults.

In 1987, for example, then U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall endured demands for his resignation due to his assessments about the U.S. Constitution advanced during a speech. Marshall, a legendary civil rights lawyer, reminded that while the Constitution is foundational, it was inherently flawed because of its compromises on slavery and rights for women.

What Marshall urged nearly 40 years ago remains relevant today. Marshall reminded that extolling reverence to the U.S. Constitution rings hollow without respect for “protecting individual freedoms and human rights.”

Linn Washington Jr., an award-winning journalist, is a journalism professor at Temple University.

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