Kansas City May Day protesters push back at ‘billionaires,’ ICE & more
Kansas Citians are gatering in Washington Square Park Friday evening for an International Workers’ Day protest for equity for working people.
The event at 5:30 p.m. is organized by a group of labor organizations and advocacy groups including Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation (AIRR), Missouri Workers Center and KC Tenants.
This comes as part of a national strike, calling for people to boycott work, school and spending on May 1.
Organizers wrote in a press release that protestors are “demanding the wealthy pay their fair share like the rest of us do; an end to ICE terror; and a democracy where working people — Black, white, and Brown — make more of the decisions about our jobs, our government, and our communities.”
The press release specifically called for supporters to protest four corporations for alleged low wages, union busting and/or ties to immigration enforcement: Amazon, Enterprise, Starbucks and Target.
The Star covered the Washington Square Park protest with photos and interviews.
Protest wrapping up
Protesters began their march back to Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park to end the demonstration as Childish Gambino’s hits “This Is America” and “Redbone” played through the speakers.
Attendees push back against billionaires
6:43 p.m.: Wise told attendees to hold their signs high in Washington Square Park Friday.
Protesters sported messages such as, “We the people, not we the greedy billionaires,” “They only get paid when you go to work,” and “I’ve got zero interest in further engaging the one percent.”
Attendance remained steady as the protest hit the one-hour mark.
— Caroline Zimmerman
Concerns about jail plans and ICE
6:30 p.m.: Michael King, a public school teacher with East High School and a leader with Decarcerate KC, objected to the city’s plan for a new jail, which could be near Frontier STEM High School and its elementary and middle feeder schools in the East Bottoms.
He doesn’t understand why the city would build a jail right across the street from a Latino-dominated high school. King said he’s fighting for Kansas City to give people a shot at feeling safe around the area with threats of ICE continuing to loom around the area.
— Joseph Hernandez
Union members show up in force
6:18 p.m.: Dontay Wilson, president of UAW Local 31, who took to the stage with “some family,” as he called his fellow union members, addressed the crowd.
“If we don’t work, don’t go to school and don’t spend our money, we remind the billionaires that it’s our labor, it’s our dollars that keep this city on its feet,” Wilson said.
— Caroline Zimmerman
Why some protesters skipped work Friday
6:10 p.m.: LaTonya Sullivan, a Kansas City-based nurse and member of SEIU Healthcare, a union that represents health care workers, said she and her family all skipped work in name of the national protest.
“If we don’t work, don’t go to school and don’t spend our money, we remind the billionaires that it’s our labor and our dollars that keep this city on its feet,” Sullivan said. “We are the economy, we built this country.”
— Joseph Hernandez
Organizers call for voting, continued action
6:08 p.m.: “We gotta take this power, and continue to build on it, and use it at the ballot box, and the workplace.” organizer Terrence Wise said. “If we don’t organize and use this power, this anger, to organize in the workplace and in our community and at the ballot box, then what the hell are we gathering for?”
— Caroline Zimmerman
Organizations come together for protest
6:03 p.m.: Terrence Wise, one of the leaders of Stand Up KC, introduced a long list of local organizations present at the protest Friday, including Stand Up KC, the Sunrise Movement and Boots on the Ground Midwest.
Many in attendance skipped work or school as a part of the national protest for International Worker’s Day, Wise said.
“Over 40 organizations are coming together across the Show Me State to show our strength in numbers as part of a national day of action,” Wise said.
— Caroline Zimmerman & Joseph Hernandez
Protest begins
5:40 p.m.: Protesters have arrived at Washington Square Park.
Some attendees have donned attire similar to what’s worn on the television series “The Handmaid’s Tale” as group leaders sing protest anthems.
— Joseph Hernandez
May Day protests
1 p.m.: The Washington Square Park protest is one of many May Day protests in the Kansas City area, shared by Boots on the Ground Midwest.
In Independence Square, outside the Historic Truman Courthouse, people will rally against data centers from 6 to 8 p.m.
In downtown Kansas City, protestors are asked to bring noisemakers to Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park at 4:30 p.m. in a protest against data centers’ noise pollution. After the demonstration, protestors will move to the 5:30 p.m. Washington Square Park rally.
— Eleanor Nash
This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 11:25 AM.
