The We Are America March stopped in Laurel Sept. 17, spending the night at the Laurel Presbyterian Church before embarking on their penultimate march to Silver Spring on Thursday morning.
The marchers began in Philadelphia on Sept. 6 and ended in Washington on Sept. 19, marching around 160 miles in total. According to the march website, the march protested authoritarian overreach by the Trump administration.
On Wednesday, church groups and local advocacy groups including Laurel Resist and Indivisible Route 1 Corridor greeted 44 marchers, and provided both food and shelter.
Marchers carried a copy of the U.S. Constitution and a giant banner of the same document.
Jim Cross, a member of the church and Laurel Resist helped organize accommodations for marchers.
According to Cross, the marchers enjoyed a potluck with food provided by volunteers, listened to a speech from Rev. Mike Lonergan of New Ark United Church of Christ in Delaware and went to sleep shortly after. In the morning, they were fed breakfast and continued their march toward Silver Spring.
Rev. Lonergan is not affiliated with the Laurel Presbyterian Church.
Cross used his knowledge and connections in the community to welcome the marchers into Laurel for the night, he said. This included the City of Laurel Police Department, which helped manage traffic for the marchers as they arrived in and then left the city.
“The police were very, very helpful,” Cross said.
The members of the Laurel Presbyterian Church were happy to host the marchers, according to elder and co-chair of the church’s communications committee Natalie Bailey. Bailey has been an elder for three years and has been a member of the church for almost 20.
She said that the church hosts a wide variety of community related events. The march was another opportunity for them to not only express their faith through hospitality but to also perform outreach in the local community.
“We use the church in a lot of different ways,” she said, “it’s one of our best ways of reaching out to other folks.”
The church also provides support for causes like Winter Haven, an initiative to provide shelter for unhoused people during the winter months, and works with Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services.
Cross said that there were around eight or ten members of the church who volunteered their time to help house the marchers. Some of the ways people contributed included setting up, serving food, ensuring safety overnight and cleaning up once the marchers departed.
“Everything went very well,” he said, “they came in, ate, went to the talk, slept, ate and left,” he recalled with a chuckle.
He also expressed respect for the marchers themselves, admiring their initiative and willingness to turn their frustration into action.
Laura Usher attended on behalf of Indivisible Route 1 Corridor. The group is a local branch of the national Indivisible movement supporting progressive causes and opposing the Trump agenda, Usher said.
“It was a positive experience,” Usher said, recalling working with the church and meeting the marchers.
Route 1 Corridor was mainly responsible for helping organize the potluck and welcoming the marchers to the church, Usher said. They also worked with Acupuncturists Without Borders to provide a few hours of free acupuncture and body work for marchers.
She said that the idea behind this collaboration was to give the marchers some relief and physical assistance after a day full of marching, as well as just talking to marchers and hearing their stories and convictions.
Usher said she was inspired by the many causes that motivated marchers to make the journey.
“It was a really wonderful opportunity for our members to go and meet people frankly from all over the country,” she said. “Just to meet those people and hear what is inspiring them to make this big commitment,” she went on to say.
The marchers arrived in the nation’s capital on Friday afternoon. Their numbers had grown to around 200 by then, according to reporting from the Associated Press.