February 17th, 2025

Presidents Day protest in Albany

  More than 70 people turned out for a rainy noontime Presidents Day protest in downtown Albany. During the hourlong protest on all four corners of the Ellsworth Street-Fourth Avenue intersection, protesters held signs expressing their discontent with the Trump administration’s actions — and the consequences of those actions — over the past month. They got a lot of friendly honks, as well as some unfriendly gestures from passing motorists.
  “I’m extraordinarily pleased with the turnout. It’s great,” said organizer Cheryl French. “We only gave people a day and a half notice. It’s a measure of how upset people are about what Trump is doing in destroying our government and our democracy."
 French said the grassroots protests in Albany and around the country “give me a bit of hope, but I think 

​there’s a whole lot of work to be done.We really need ​
the courts to help us, because without them we’re in trouble.”
  The Albany protest was held in conjunction with 50501, short for “50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement.” It’s a grassroots effort to protest