A number of Limestone County residents turned out in Athens last weekend to lend some local representation to the “No Kings” rallies and protests that unfolded the same day in cities and communities nationwide.

Until uncooperative weather dampened the outdoor event, between 75 and 100 people showed up on the steps of the Limestone County Courthouse in Athens, many bearing handmade signs driving home the movement’s criticism of recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across the United States under the direction of the administration of President Donald Trump.

Longtime local Democrat Ken Hines, who describes himself as a progressive rather than as a partisan loyalist, attended the Athens event, which developed as a late local offshoot of the larger “No Kings” protest that took place in Huntsville.

“There’s a general level of frustration and anger, even, about some of the things that are happening,” he said. “There is planning that has to go into giving people the opportunity to express themselves. We’re not being paid.”

Fellow attendee Janet Hunt helped quickly organize the Athens protest through Indivisible Athens Alabama, the local chapter of national 501(c)(4) nonprofit the Indivisible Project. Hunt echoed Hines’ emphasis on the Athens protest’s organic composition, saying her goal in staging the event was to afford concerned area residents who could not have attended the Huntsville protest a local opportunity to make their voices heard.

“Most of the people I know had planned on going to Huntsville, but — kind of at the last minute — I had people I knew would have difficulty getting around who would not have driven to Huntsville,” she said. “So I said, ‘I’m just going to organize something here.’”

Though the protest was lively and animated, Hunt said its overall tone was one of peaceful and conscientious objection to the Trump administration, with no hint of the chaotic disruption seen across social media from a handful of more raucous events that unfolded in some of the nation’s urban areas.

“I’d say there were people within the protest who maybe even voted for Trump, but see now what’s happening and how it’s going to affect them,” she said. “I’m sure there were Republicans — or old Republicans — who were participating.”