Indianapolis July 4 protest takes peaceful, community building approach

Scores of people gathered at Garfield Park in downtown Indianapolis Friday in one of many events held across the country to send a protest message to the Trump administration. Some events were more traditional forms of protest: marches, vigils, and rallies. Indiana 50501 and Indivisible Central Indiana took a different approach – a community picnic.

Indiana 50501 State Organizer Scott Johnson said the aim is more “community outreach,” to provide a place where people can feel they are not alone.

“There's nothing as effective from my perspective as people coming together and breaking bread. It's the oldest of human traditions,” Johnson said.

The pagoda shelter at Garfield Park Art Center was filled with people socializing, eating and listening to music. Many of them joined to meet more like-minded people and celebrate Independence Day, like Sheron Burgess.

“I want to be with people who are aware of the times we are living in and are actively engaged in steps to push back,” Burgess said.

People played games, ate hot dogs and talked. Twila Johnson was one of many who said the recent spending bill passed by Congress, now signed into law, was a shadow over the day.

“Nobody wants to celebrate now. I mean, we're all, we're all, mad. We're mad because
he's trying to take our country away,” Johnson said.

Indiana 50501 is a national movement created in “response to the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies,” according to the national 50501 website. The group formed on February 5th, 2025 and launched  with “50 protests. 50 states. 1 day.” protests, held at statehouses across the country.

Indivisible is also national, has a similar perspective and launched in 2016. Its website states it started as “the Indivisible Guide, a Google Doc guide to organizing locally to pressure your elected officials to resist Trump’s agenda.” Indivisible Central Indiana launched in 2017. Its Facebook page says it is “a respectful, inclusive, progressive ACTIVIST grassroots organization.”

50501 organizer Johnson says Indiana 50501 held 10-12 large events since February, the largest was the June “No Kings” protest, which had a turnout in the thousands. Their next major event nods to late Congressman John Lewis’s civil rights legacy, titled “Good Trouble Lives On: Indy.”

Contact WFYI digital producer and reporter Zach Bundy at zbundy@wfyi.org.