On March 7, protesters gathered in Union Square, New York City to rally against the American and Israeli attacks on Iran. A diverse crowd included several political groups, pro-Palestinian groups, and ultra-orthodox Jews opposed to the State of Israel. After listening to speeches, the protesters marched peacefully across 14th Street.
The 2026 Stand Up for Science rally was held in City Hall Park, New York City and around the country in a national day of action. Almost all of the protesters were MDs, PhDs, or both, with young researchers and PhD candidates also represented. Speakers included Michelle Ng Gong, MD, president-elect of the American Thoracic Society, who spoke forcefully of the need for the federal government to finance medical research and treatments for respiratory diseases. When one speaker asked the protesters to raise their hands if they had had loss of federal funding in the last 12 months, almost everyone raised a hand.
On January 11, 2026 protesters took to the streets across the country to protest recent government actions at home and abroad. In New York City, thousands of marchers walked peacefully from Grand Army Plaza down Fifth Avenue to 42nd Street.
It was a tumultuous year by any measure and a year that made us think about our values as a nation. I spent most of it in New York City, covering one demonstration after another. On a trip to France I thought about America’s past role as defender of democracy, and in New Mexico I learned about the history of the many Native American nations who made this state unique.
The day before the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the enormous balloons featured in the parade have to be inflated, secured with ropes and nets, and anchored with sandbags. What used to be a neighborhood tradition for children and their parents on the streets surrounding the American Museum of Natural History has become a major tourist attraction with an enormous police presence and security. This year, not for the first time, the New York City mayor and police commissioner held a news conference to assure the public that the parade will be safe and there is “no credible threat” to New York or the parade.
June 14, 2025: Protesters marched down Fifth Avenue as part of the national No Kings protests against the policies of the current administration. Crowd estimates vary, but some 50,000 people marched in New York on a rainy day and over 1 million marched nationwide.
The large protest march from the New York Public Library to Central Park was perhaps smaller than the massive protest two weeks earlier, but with its two main themes of immigration and climate there was no less energy among the many thousands of people who joined the nationwide protests.
On April 5, tens of thousands of people, possibly 100,000, marched in New York City as part of nationwide protests against the administration. The estimate is that people joined 1600 protests across the country. In New York, the protesters filled 20 blocks of Fifth Avenue for over 3 hours. Well organized, peaceful, and orderly, the protest included families with children, people in wheelchairs, the elderly, and the young. A frequent chant was “This is What Democracy Looks Like.”
A large protest march started out at Foley Square in Manhattan on March 15, directly across from the Federal Courthouse. The protesters demonstrated against cuts to health care and the social safety net, and the firing of federal workers, marching past ICE headquarters and City Hall before proceeding down Broadway to Lower Manhattan. Senator Chuck Schumer was a focus of their anger after he voted with Republicans for a funding bill without negotiating.
On March 8, 2025 there were at least three different demonstrations in downtown Manhattan. After photographing the protest at the Tesla dealership in the Meatpacking section, I went to Union Square to cover the end of the International Women’s Day protest. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in support of women’s equality in a demonstration that lasted over three hours.
DeborahShapiroPhotos 