Lara Bury, of Springfield, attends the No Kings protest in the Town of Herndon, Saturday, March 28. Bury says the protests are building community and helping people feel less alone.
For Joe and hundreds of other seniors who took to the streets in the Town of Herndon and in Reston, the Herndon-Reston Indivisible No Kings 3 rally wasn't just a Saturday outing — it was a decades-long fight for democracy coming full circle.
Joe, who joined others filling the sidewalks of downtown Herndon on March 28, remembers a different kind of high stakes. He was draft number 50 during the Vietnam War. For a young man, “that was scary,” he said. “I protested against the Vietnam War. And here I am, in my 70s, doing it again.”
John Hoefnagels of Maine stood with his brother, George, at the corner of Elden Street and the W&OD Trail for the No Kings 3 rally. He echoed the same sentiment. “I think it is the same as the Vietnam protest, but it was younger people,” John said.
Protesters’ signs voiced a wide range of opposition, from expanded national executive power, the 2026 Iran War to ICE raids, the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti during federal immigration sweeps and more. In one voice, they declared,” No thrones; no crowns; no kings.”
Among the thousands locally in Reston and Herndon, Tom Geniesse from New York City stood post. He joined his sister from Reston in the Town of Herndon. Geniesse said, “I’m here to protest the awful policies of the Trump administration."
Joanne Collins, host for Herndon-Reston Indivisible, said that No Kings 3 was a local event by Herndon-Reston Indivisible and its partners including the Community Action Team, Third Act Virginia and the Hunter Mill Democrats for Street Visibility. The groups peacefully demonstrated at seven intersections in Reston and Herndon. According to Collins, 500 people attended their Herndon corner events while 2,200 gathered at the five corner events in Reston.
Lara Bury of Springfield, who attended previous rallies, noted that the "No Kings" events are increasingly about building community. For many, the rally represented a survival response in a year of political shifts and "people building community ... because of the ongoing protest energy and not feeling alone." “There’s more hope,” Bury said, as she looked over the crowd of protestors.