Mass Protest: Where Are the Kids?

The latest No Kings marches attracted a record eight million people. Most of them were of an advanced age that suggested they personally remembered the 1960s.

https://prospect.org/2026/04/08/mass-protest-where-are-the-kids/


People at a No Kings rally protest against President Donald Trump and his administration, March 28, 2026, at Alameda Park in Santa Barbara, California. Credit: Rod Rolle/Sipa USA via AP Images

One thing was missing at the No Kings 3 rallies last month—students and other young people. The vast majority of people who participated in No Kings were of my generation. This is a weird inversion. The great protests of the past were student-led. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Freedom Riders of CORE were the advance guard of the 1960s civil rights movement. The great anti-war protests of the same era that ultimately led to Lyndon Johnson’s abdication were all led by the young. So what’s happening today?

Instead of students organizing against complicit adults, college presidents such as Wesleyan’s exemplary Michael Roth are hoping to rouse dormant students. Last month, Roth formally unveiled Democracy Summer, in partnership with hundreds of universities ranging from Yale and Duke to small religious institutions such as Goshen College and Trinity Washington University. Roth reminded me that student involvement depends heavily on context. “Two years ago, students did participate in campus protests involving Palestine,” because campuses were scenes of university crackdowns; and students did lead in the Black Lives Matter protests.

No Kings may not resonate, either as slogan or as a good use of time. Roth hopes that Democracy Summer will create opportunities for students to engage locally, well before Election Day, “to get trained, make connections and build community where you are.” Meanwhile, scores of Democratic members of Congress have followed Maryland’s Jamie Raskin and are recruiting students to paid summer internships to be trained to defend democracy in the fall.

I have heard three plausible explanations for the fact that some of the young have to be prodded into protest by their elders. One is the nature of today’s student anger. Today’s students certainly have plenty to be angry about, but President Trump is only the tip of the iceberg. If you consider what today’s students are angry about, it goes something like this: I am drowning in debt, I’ll never be able to buy a house, I’m more likely to have a series of gigs than a real job. And the planet is turning into a cinder. That sort of anger doesn’t stimulate the urge to march. More likely, it produces despondency, despair, and passivity. What difference would marching make?

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