Staff photo by Fritz Busch Several hundred people held signs and sang on North Broadway between Garden and Franklin Street Saturday afternoon as part of the No Kings Rally. The national event was observed in many cities across the United States. Pictured at right is Keith Klawitter of Morgan who held an old bag of golf clubs.

NEW ULM — Several hundred non-violent protesters met in North Park to hear speakers and sing before carrying signs and lining the south side of several blocks of North Broadway Saturday.

The “No Kings” demonstration protesting President Donald Trump’s administration was among more than 3,100 nationwide protests, topping totals of previous No Kings rallies held last October and June.

Marches and demonstrations took place in every state in America, plus events in Canada, Mexico and elsewhere. A flagship rally at the Minnesota State Capitol included Jane Fonda, and singers Bruce Springsteen and Joan Baez, according to the No Kings website.

New Ulm No Kings participants included Courtland native Adam Olson and his wife Victoria Horberg-Olson, a Chicago native. The couple now lives in Minneapolis.

“We’ve been to rallies in Chicago and Minneapolis but we came here to be with family and felt we could make more of an impact here,” said Horberg-Olson.

“I came here to be with family and stand for change,” said Adam Olson.

Garrett R. Ebling of Indivisible New Ulm was among several speakers at North Park.

“Thank you for standing together in this moment. We are here because we believe in something simple, powerful, and profoundly American: that nobody stands above all the people, and no king belongs in a democracy,” he said.

Ebling said No Kings gatherings are not out of anger, but out of conviction, from millions of voices that refuse to be silenced.

“Conviction that our future is not written by a powerful few, but by the determined many. Conviction that solidarity is not just a word–it is a force,” he said. “Today we raise our voices not just to oppose concentrated power, but to affirm the power we already hold. The power of community, participation, refusing to be divided or discouraged. The power of saying together, we decide. We shape our future. We are the authors of our own democracy.”

Ebling called the collective voice of the people a roar, a force that has changed nations before and will shape the path of this country ahead.

“When we act in solidarity, when we speak as one indivisible unit, when we refuse to be intimidated or ignored, we embody the very spirit of democracy. No kings, no crowns,” he said.

New Ulm League of Women Voters President Ruth Ann Webster urged people to vote.

“A number of women worked for 80 years to get the 19th Amendment passed so women could vote,” she said. “Once they got to vote, they knew they could vote, they knew their job was not done. We are here to help women register to vote. Like our sign says, marching and rallying is not enough. You must vote and help others vote.”

Pam Krzmarzick of Sleepy Eye said she learned about a group called the Singing Resistance in the Twin Cities and decided it was needed here.

Earlier this year, the group began with a few hundred Minnesotans peacefully singing songs with lyrics of hope, resisting authoritarianism and opposing ICE (immigration and customs enforcement) in streets and church sanctuaries.

Group videos rapidly went viral. The group’s social media gained tens of thousands of follows in less than a month.

New Ulm singers Therese Schimek and Beth Zabel continued to sing and chant at the Broadway rally after singing in North Park.

A wide variety of signs were carried by rally participants. Messages on the signs included “It’s actually pretty cool to care about other people. Congress do your job. No kings since 1776. I can’t afford this wannabe king and his wars. God save the First Amendment and due process. Empty the concentration jails,” to mention a few.