The Missing Black Demonstrators in Anti-Trump Protests

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Why it matters: Many of the Black Americans who flooded the streets in 2020 have stepped back from the renewed anti-Trump protests — torn between the urgency of the moment and the spiritual toll of relentless, often fruitless resistance.

• The stakes are huge: President Trump’s second-term agenda is openly hostile to DEI, police reform, and the civil rights protections that have underpinned racial progress for the last half-century.
• But prominent Black activists tell Axios that rest does not equal retreat, and that the movement is evolving — in leadership, tone and tactics — for the long fight ahead.

Driving the news: Photos from last weekend’s “Hands Off!” demonstrations — where millions protested DOGE cuts, immigration raids and mass federal layoffs — show a striking shift from 2020.

• Most participants were older and white, as seen at rallies across the country and confirmed to Axios — a stark contrast to the multiracial, Black-led protests launched in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
• Campus protests over Trump’s immigration crackdown have drawn primarily white, Latino, and Asian American students, with Black participants largely absent from the front lines.
• In Washington, D.C., Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House was quietly dismantled last month after funding threats from Republicans — a symbolic setback in what once was the epicenter of 2020’s racial reckoning.

Zoom in: A viral video from last weekend showed Black Americans enjoying brunch in Atlanta — a historical hub of Black political power and culture — while white “Hands Off!” demonstrators marched outside.

• Many Black advocates active in the 2020 racial reckoning protests have declared online that they’re not interested in rejoining public demonstrations right now.

Others told Axios they’re emotionally drained and need a “break” after the demoralizing defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman nominated for president by a major political party.

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