Dozens of people from all different causes gathered at the Save Mart Center on Saturday, Jan. 18 for the 2025 Peoples March.
Fresno has seen many protests since Election Day when Donald Trump became president elect. Some major protests that followed include a Palestine liberation march and an immigration protest. This march occurred the day before Trump’s inauguration.
People came to support a plethora of causes. Some were for women’s reproductive rights, the Palestine Liberation, LGTBQ+ rights, Native American rights, immigrant rights and climate change.
Previously known as the Women’s March, the Peoples March was a rebranding that aimed to include a wide variety of social issues and causes. In the 2017 Women’s March, around 500,000 people gathered in Washington D.C.
This event has spread to a national event. The Central Valley Women’s March hosted the march at the corner of Shaw and Chestnut Avenues. People walked down Shaw Avenue chanting for their causes and holding signs that pushed for women’s rights to control their own body, defunding Israel, standing up for Native Americans and more.
“We need to get together as a community so everyone knows we are here,” said Amanda Gann, one of the event’s organizers and social media coordinators. “We will stand up for you, and we value each other.”
The event garnered a large turnout and Gann points to a possible reason for this.
“It’s probably because people are upset about the coming administration and are really scared and fearful about what might be to come,” Gann said.
Others in attendance shared this sentiment. Josie Tamez Miracle was one of the gathering’s attendees along with her kids. She is a part of the Chicano Alumni Club at Fresno State and has had over four decades of experience in protesting and fighting for her beliefs.
Miracle spoke about her frustrations with not only the uncertainty of the upcoming administration but also the current one and its funding of Israel.
Despite the obstacles she’s faced throughout her years of protesting, she described her motivation to keep fighting.
“My kids for one,” Miracle said. “Just the fact that there’s injustice of the people you know.
One of the main causes she was representing was one for Native American rights. She spoke about issues in Clovis Unified and not allowing students to wear cultural accessories for ceremonies.
Some protesters were keynote speakers who spoke about other injustices. Kwamise Fletcher, also known as Lady K is a spoken word artist and poet who was thankful for the opportunity to share her thoughts through poems.
“I use my spoken word, which I feel is my gift from God, in order to express how I feel, how I show up in the world as a black woman,” Fletcher said.
She also admired the large crowd that came to support the march.
“So to be in places like this where there’s over a hundred of us gathered here from the Central Valley, of all different walks of life, of all different religions, races, sexual orientations, all of those things that they use to separate us, we are here together celebrating our solidarity, to let them know that we won’t be silenced,” Fletcher said.
Many in the crowd resonated with this idea as they supported each other’s causes and listened to what everyone had to say.
Overall the event ended peacefully with tons of cars honking in agreement as they drove by. Gann shared that there are plans for more gatherings in the future.
“Pretty much we just want everyone to come together and work together to help make the world a better place to live in,” Gann said.