Protesters in D.C. rally for priorities to counter Trump’s 250th anniversary programming
A few hundred activists marched to the White House on Saturday, June 27, 2026, for the Next250 rally. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — Activists rallied, danced and marched in the nation’s capital Saturday as they laid out their vision for the future of the United States beyond this year’s semiquincentennial.
Speakers and performers at the Next250 rally in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Video by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
The Next250 demonstration, organized by a coalition of advocacy groups, featured a massive “Declaration of Interdependence” requiring more than a dozen people to hold it during a march past the northern barricaded perimeter of the White House, where President Donald Trump was present this weekend.
Event organizers scheduled the rally to counter the Trump administration’s Freedom 250 programming, which is taking place on the National Mall over several weeks.
The few hundred rallygoers convened for nearly four hours in McPherson Square before marching toward the White House via the former Black Lives Matter Plaza, a pedestrian-only zone created by the city in June 2020 during unrest after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The plaza was repainted in March 2025 under the order of Mayor Muriel Bowser after Trump took office and Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., introduced legislation in Congress saying it had to be redone or the district would lose federal funding.
Causes represented ran the gamut: advocacy for stricter gun laws, a $25 federal minimum hourly wage, universal voting rights for the formerly incarcerated, and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage and leader of the Living Wage for All coalition, said lobbying for higher wages is “maybe the biggest” priority of the Next250 platform.
“For the last several years, we’ve been thinking ahead about wanting to use the 250th anniversary of the country as a moment to declare our unity as a people around a set of values and policies,” Jayaraman said.
“We’re often told we’re too polarized to get anything done, but the truth is that we actually know that we agree as a people across red, blue, and purple states that everybody who works deserves to earn enough to feed their families. Everybody who sends their children to school should be able to do that without them being shot up by assault weapons. Everybody wants a planet to live on, and a climate we can live in.”
Jayaraman praised Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., for introducing a bill on June 25 to raise the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour.
Murphy was joined in the legislation by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Andy Kim, D-N.J., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. A companion bill in the House is sponsored by U.S. Reps. Delia Ramirez, and Jesús “Chuy” García, both Illinois Democrats, Analilia Mejia, D-N.J., and Lateefah Simon, D-Calif.
Clara, a 56-year-old Mexican immigrant from Queens, New York, who did not want to share her last name for fear of being targeted, said she’s worried about the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on birthright citizenship. Trump ordered the end of birthright citizenship, a right granted in the Constitution, upon beginning his second term.
“As a mother of U.S. citizen children, that worries me about the future of the country. I have a U.S. citizen daughter, and I think that one of those federal changes could affect other immigrant families,” Clara said through an interpreter, Kimberly Vega, 27, of Staten Island, New York.
Both sat with Las Doñas, an advocacy group for women immigrants that has chapters throughout the U.S.
Reymane Sanders, 36, of New Haven, Connecticut, traveled to the rally with the organization Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People & Families Movement to advocate for restoring the right to vote across the U.S. for convicted felons. Sanders served 17 years in prison.
“Typically I definitely support (the cause) when it comes to filling out petitions, but this will be the first time that I actually put my body, my mind, everything all into the whole movement,” said Sanders.
The Next250 demonstration was collectively organized by the separate organizations All of US, Next 250, Get Free and 50501.