Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Walkout Demonstration Brings Pasadena Into Nationwide Protest Tuesday

Participants plan to gather at The Paseo at 2 p.m. and walk Colorado Boulevard as local part of an estimated 1,000 protests nationwide marking one year since Trump’s second inauguration

A demonstration is planned for this afternoon along Colorado Boulevard sidewalks as locals join over 1,000 coordinated walkouts across the country, organized by Women’s March and the 50501 Movement to mark the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second inauguration.

The “Free America Walkout” asks Pasadena-area participants to leave work, school, or commercial activity at 2 p.m. and gather at The Paseo, the open-air shopping center at 300 E. Colorado Blvd. From there, demonstrators intend to walk the sidewalk between Raymond Avenue and Lake Avenue, organizers said.

Participants are instructed to stay on sidewalks, allow pedestrian traffic to flow, and obey all street signs and signals. Organizers said they have invited Pasadena Police Department to maintain a presence and facilitate the demonstration. “This is a peaceful walk,” according to promotional materials distributed by the organizers.

San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible, a local activist group that serves communities from Monrovia to Sunland-Tujunga, is hosting the Pasadena event. The group has organized multiple demonstrations in Pasadena over the past year, including “No Kings” protests that drew thousands to City Hall.

The walkout is one of more than 1,000 similar events listed on the Women’s March website as of January 17, with organizers claiming roughly 30,000 participants had signed up nationwide. Events are scheduled in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, as well as internationally in Canada, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, according to the organization.

Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, said in a statement that the walkout strategy differs from traditional marches.

“Marches show how many people care. Walkouts show how much power we have,” the organization said in materials explaining the event. “A walkout interrupts business as usual. It makes visible how much our labor, participation, and cooperation are taken for granted — and what happens when we withdraw them together.”

The walkout marks a shift in tactics for Women’s March, which organized the first Women’s March in 2017 — the day after Trump’s first inauguration — drawing an estimated 500,000 people to Washington and millions more nationwide, according to contemporaneous reports.

“The strategy of [today’s] walkout is to show the collective power of the people, organize across workplaces and communities, and make it visible what happens when people come together and withdraw labor, participation, and cooperation,” Carmona said. “Instead of symbolic protest, Free America is using real action to test strength and build coordination as a response to the injustice that we are seeing towards our communities.”

The 50501 Movement, the other primary national organizer, describes itself as a decentralized grassroots movement founded in January 2025. The name stands for “50 protests, 50 states, one day.”

Organizers describe the walkout as a response to what they characterize as “a rapid series of escalations, including immigration raids, expanded militarization, attacks on workers and families, and the use of fear and force to silence dissent.”

For those unable to leave work, organizers suggested alternatives including taking breaks around 2 p.m., using approved leave, joining community gatherings before or after work, or wearing symbols of solidarity. Participants are encouraged to wear red, white, and blue.

Parking is available in The Paseo’s subterranean garages, accessible from Colorado Boulevard and Green Street. The rally is free and open to the public. Those seeking more information can visit freeameri.ca or contact San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible at sangabrielfoothillsindivisible@gmail.com.

“Authoritarianism runs on our obedience, and we’re withdrawing it,” Carmona said. “We walk out because a Free America is the only America worth calling great.”