What to Do This Week Before No Kings
Your day-by-day plan for March 23 through March 28, from changing your profile picture to inviting people, making signs, and showing up ready.
📌 NOTE FOR NEW READERS: The 50501 Movement organizes peaceful action across all 50 states to defend democracy. This publication is nearly 100k readers strong and growing. If this resonates with you, hit subscribe.
March 28 is six days away.
This post is your Monday through Saturday action guide. Each day has a focus… be visibility on Monday, personal outreach on Tuesday, logistics on Wednesday, creative action on Thursday, rest on Friday, and steady presence on Saturday. The official No Kings coalition has published resources for finding events, knowing your rights, completing trainings, and spreading the word, and this guide builds on all of that. If you do nothing else, change your profile picture to the no kings logo, personally invite a few people, or chalk your sidewalk.
Saturday will be powerful and beautiful because we spend the week before it making calls, making plans, making signs, changing profile pictures for visibility, and bringing in new people.
The official No Kings site is already pushing attendees toward four things this week: find your event, know your rights, complete trainings, and spread the word. It also emphasizes preparation, nonviolent discipline, and practical safety ahead of March 28.
In August 1963, the week before the March on Washington was not about waiting time either.
Bayard Rustin, the chief organizer of what became one of the most consequential demonstrations in American history, spent that final week in a whirlwind of logistics going through community action and detail.
His team coordinated 21 chartered trains, arranged for 40 doctors and nurses at first aid stations, pre-positioned 80,000 boxed lunches, organized 292 portable toilets, and set up a direct-line phone system to keep marshals connected across the entire National Mall. They printed instruction sheets telling marchers where to park, where to stand, and how to stay safe. They trained 5,000 volunteer marshals in crowd management and nonviolent de-escalation.
And when 250,000 people arrived, they arrived into a structure that held them high and elevated their voices and message.
We are in our version of that right now.
Our march is different and our logistics are local. But the principle is identical: the work you do this week is the platform Saturday stands on.
And if you want the most important lesson from organizing research: personal, conversational outreach works better than impersonal blasts, social influence spreads most strongly through people’s relationships and close ties. Your post helps this get in front of more people, but your text message to your co-worker, family member, or friend might make a bigger impact.
This is our collective action plan for the week.
Monday Action | Add ❌👑 to your profile name
Today is about making a major signal and for mass visibility through the power of social media.
If people wake up and see the No Kings symbol everywhere in profile pictures, stories, feeds, group chats, and comment sections, it changes the feel of the week going into Saturday. It tells people this is happening, this is growing, and this is close.
Change your profile picture to the No Kings symbol and add ❌👑 to your profile name.
Today, add ❌👑 to your profile name and change your profile picture to one of the following:
If you’d like a template for a caption, you can use this:
Copy/paste line:
I changed my profile picture today, March 28 is close. Find your local No Kings event and come with us to make history for the largest protest in US history.
Tuesday Action | Outreach
Pick two or three people and contact them directly with an invitation: I’m going on March 28. Please come with me! :)
People are much more likely to go when the invitation comes through someone they know. Organizing research has repeatedly found that personalized, conversational contact outperforms impersonal outreach, and large-scale social influence research has found that participation spreads especially well through close friends and strong ties.
So help the movement out by personally inviting two to three people on Tuesday. You could even ask one person to repost your event. Share your local event link again. And tell people why you are going, in a few sentences.
Wednesday Action | Your plan
By Wednesday, we should all know our plan. Where we are going. Who we are going with. How we are getting there. Where we are meeting. What the weather looks like. What we are bringing.
The ACLU reminds protesters that the First Amendment protects the right to assemble and express your views through protest, while also noting that officials can place narrow restrictions which is why it helps to prepare before heading out. The official No Kings resource guide also emphasizes preparing ahead of time so people can protest safely and effectively.
Think of Wednesday as your “no loose ends” day.
By the time you go to bed, you should not still be wondering where you are parking, who you are meeting, or whether anyone else is coming.
Thursday: Get creative!
Not everybody can organize a rally or host a meeting. But a lot of people can create something visible in their own community.
That is why we Chalk the Walk.
Bring your message of democracy to public sidewalks and visible community spaces where allowed. Keep it readable, and take photos. The official No Kings resource guide encourages communities to use visual displays while staying aware of local rules and regulations, which is exactly the right approach here.
For signs, the same principles hold. Use big letters, make it readable from far away, try not to overcrowd it, and let the strongest words be the biggest.
Post your chalk photos using #ChalkTheWalk. This is the kind of visibility that compounds… every photo someone else sees makes the next person more likely to do it too.
If you post your chalk or your sign today, tag us. We want to see it!
Friday: Rest up!
This is our rest night and our make-sure-everything-is-ready night.
The official No Kings guide recommends practical prep ahead of time: dress for the weather, wear comfortable walking shoes, bring water and snacks, bring needed medications, fully charge your phone, carry a battery pack, and make sure an emergency contact knows your location and status.
So on Friday night: confirm your ride or route, recheck your event time and location, charge your phone and battery pack, lay out your clothes, put your sign by the door, pack your water and snacks and any medications, and let someone know where you’ll be.
Then get some good sleep.
Saturday: NO KINGS!
The First Amendment protects your right to assemble and express your views through protest.
We are committed to nonviolent action, weapons of any kind should not be brought to events, including those that may otherwise be legally permitted.
On Saturday, follow local organizers and safety leads, stay with your people, help first-timers feel welcome, keep each other calm and informed, and share what you see afterward. Let people see how many showed up.
If you are doing #ChalkTheWalk, tell us what message you plan to write.
Sources
Centola, D. (2010). “The Spread of Behavior in an Online Social Network Experiment.” Science, 329(5996), 1194–1197.
Bond, R. M. et al. (2012). “A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization.” Nature, 489, 295–298.
ACLU, “Know Your Rights: Protesters’ Rights.”
No Kings, “Resource Guide & Community Response For No Kings Day.”
National Park Service, “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.”
Vote like your life depends on it!!
For the technologically impaired can you please outline how to change your profile and name?