Hundreds attend Willits “No Kings” protest

WILLITS, CA., 6/15/25 — Despite its small size, Willits has always carried more than its weight in the nation’s zeitgeist. The town was the first to truly embrace sustainability, championing permaculture and carbon sequestration, and has been a bastion of civic responsibility. The latter came to the fore Saturday during the “No Kings” protest, which challenged President Donald Trump’s policies regarding a range of issues. Looming over this particular protest was the takedown of Senator Alex Padilla, handcuffed outside a Thursday press conference, and the assassination of a Minnesota state representative, her husband, and the wounding of a Democratic state senator and his wife.

But before all that, Willits’ Indivisible group, guided by a steering committee of seven people, had been planning the “No Kings” event for weeks. 

Willits resident Melinda Clarke came up with the idea of a parade, in an ironic nod to the Trump-mandated military parade the same day in Washington, D.C. Fellow volunteer Kate Black organized the parade monitors. Black joined organizer Kim Bancroft to walk the parade route beforehand to identify potential problem points and notify business owners that a lot of people might be marching past their doors. The parade route began at the old Howard Hospital grounds, now Babcock Park, and marched north on Main Street to Commercial, turned right, ending up at Willits City Park.

Black had taken nonviolence training in May, and she called for monitors to direct traffic and guard the route. Twenty people signed up, and Clarke sewed special vests for the monitors to wear. And that turned out to be a very good thing, as the steering committee was about to be thankful that they had prepared so well.

A massive surprise

The group spearheads democracy vigils every Friday evening. “Usually about 40 or 50 people show up,” Bancroft said. She expected more than that number to protest Saturday, thinking perhaps 100 or 150 would come. Those assigned to count marchers at Noyo Theater counted 520 people, while another group who hadn’t wanted to make the trek waited at the City Park, jumping the number of participants to over 550. The monitors were kept busy stopping marchers at driveways and intersections so drivers, many honking their horns in support, could turn into Safeway or service stations.

“We were stunned,” Bancroft said. “And there were all these people I knew but had never seen at a demonstration. The chiropractor and the grocer and the waiter, and I’d go, ‘You’re here, too!’ It was just so wonderful.”

Bancroft said a lot of people were talking about Padilla and the politically motivated murders in Minnesota. She believed that people came out in droves to drive awareness of the dangers of political division and policies that harm communities such as Willits. She added, “This time there were a lot of young people.” She estimated that of over 500 people at least 100 were age 50 and under. “It was great spirit and happiness, and everyone was so surprised to see so many of us. People cherished in the community were coming out to step up to support democracy.”

Filming the march

No one was more surprised by the turnout than Willits resident Larry Silverman, who arrived at the route with his video equipment to film a small town’s protest against Trump’s policies. “This is a tenth of the population of Willits!” he said Saturday afternoon. Silverman, a retired TV producer, writer and director, also had been planning this day for quite a while. He came early with his video equipment and prepared to film.

Why video? “I am doing it as an encouragement for people who have not yet taken that extra step to get involved,” he said. “And to keep the spirits up of those people who have been involved and have been demonstrating. This is going to be a long haul, at least a couple of years. We all need just a little encouragement to keep going.”

Silverman thinks the finished product, with a sound track of songs by Joan Baez and Janis Ian, will do that job. He produced a shorter video of Willits’ May Day protest and sent that video to Baez and Ian. “It happened so fast,” he said. “I sent them an email on Friday night, and by Saturday afternoon it was a done deal. They liked [the May Day video] and clearly our goals are the same.” Silverman hopes to have Saturday’s video featured on MSNBC, on the “Rachel Maddow Show.” “We don’t know what the producers will decide to do, but they’ll receive the footage.”

Willits Indivisible is on a growth spurt

Perhaps the turnout for the parade should not have been so surprising. 

The Willits Indivisible group started only a few months ago with an impromptu meeting at Brickhouse Coffee, a coffee shop where many thinkers, artists and activists spend their mornings. Organizers expected around five to eight people but about 25 showed up. 

According to Black, at the next meeting the now nascent steering committee “nabbed the [public] library, but so many people came we had to transfer to Recreation Grove Park, where we had the next two meetings with over 100 people attending.” The group now has a membership of over 250 people. Black said that for safety reasons, location and times of meetings are announced only by email and word of mouth to members rather than publicized widely.

The group has done its own nonviolence training and plans to do more. It has 10 subcommittees, such as a postcard writing group, a fact-finding committee, and one dedicated to the midterm elections. Said Black, “I came to the group out of a sense of frustration, wondering what to do to try and stem this wave of repression and also reaching out for support to not feel so isolated, stunned and upset watching what feels like our democracy and constitutional rights being shredded right before our eyes.”

View Larry Silverman’s video here.