Image by kaleb tapp.

It’s late afternoon, and most of the cars are pulling out of the parking lot behind a nondescript office building in Whippany, New Jersey, as I arrive. Our small group has been gathering here since March, so we know the drill. After some quick greetings, we pop our trunks and unload. There are flags, banners, signs, bungee cords, rolls of tape, noisemakers, and, most important of all, letters. A stack of black, 20-by-30-inch foam boards, each bearing a single white letter, has been carefully prearranged to spell out the day’s message.

I’m part of a Visibility Brigade, the rush-hour resistance groups that take to highway overpasses to display protest messages for all to see. The first one started in Paramus, New Jersey, in 2020. With Donald Trump’s second election, the movement grew via social media and word of mouth as a way for small groups to make an impact using investments of time and creativity, but not a lot of money.

Our supplies assembled, we trudge up the hill, across the street, and onto a bridge spanning I-287. With practiced ease, we begin transforming the overpass from a grimy traffic artery into a makeshift protest billboard.

First, we post our letters, using bungee cords to attach them to the chain-link fence facing the highway. Recent messages have included “Freeze illegal ICE arrests,” “Democracy dies in silence,” “Our constitution isn’t optional,” and, of course, “No kings.” Adding color to the display are Pride flags, banners reading “Dissent” and “Resist,” and plenty of American flags, some upside down, once a signal of distress used by America’s ships, and now, by its people.

Even before we finish setting up, we start getting honks. For the next couple of hours, we hold up our signs, wave our flags, and flash thumbs up and V for victory at passing cars. In North Jersey, we tend to get more positive than negative responses, though we can’t always be certain what the honks mean, unless they’re accompanied by angry shouting and middle fingers. There are plenty of those, too. Thousands of cars go by while we’re on the bridge, and every driver sees our message; hundreds respond.

From time to time, the police pay us a visit, which can be nerve-racking, especially in light of the violent response to recent protests in Los Angeles. We’re within our rights, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t be hard to concoct some charge on which to arrest us. But so far, the local cops have been polite and even amiable, simply telling us that someone has reported us, but that we’re not violating any laws.

Our form of activism seems odd to a lot of people. After all, tiny overpass protests don’t get much media coverage or attention from politicians. I’ve been asked what I hope to accomplish by standing on a bridge waving at cars.

In the lead-up to the 2024 election, I canvassed for Democrats in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Especially in small towns, I saw loads of Trump yard signs, but none for Harris. So I started asking people who planned to vote Democratic to put out a sign. Over and over again, I got the same response: “I’m too scared,” and even, “People around here have guns.” Most other canvassers I spoke to reported hearing similar statements.

Even before the election, people were feeling intimidated by Trump supporters. As soon as he became president again, Trump ramped up his threatening rhetoric and issued a deluge of executive orders designed to chill free speech and curtail due process and other rights. This was followed by the mass detention and deportation of immigrants, most of whom had committed no crimes; when these actions prompted protests in Los Angeles, Trump responded by sending in the military. The administration is stoking fear to silence people, leaving the President and his allies free to act in an increasingly authoritarian manner without facing a defiant public.

I know that a small group protesting in New Jersey isn’t going to bring down this presidency or end authoritarianism alone. But by standing on that bridge, we’re telling our neighbors that we’re not afraid, and that we refuse to surrender our constitutional rights without so much as a fight. And we’re inviting them to find their voices, too.

Indeed, our movement is spreading, with similar groups emerging around the country. The website visiblitybrigade.com, created by the original Paramus group, now lists more than 100 Visibility Brigades in 35 states. In April, several New England groups organized simultaneous protests on more than 20 bridges over I-91 in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. On June 14, the day of Trump’s much-hyped military parade, Visibility Brigades took to more than 50 overpasses in the Washington, DC, area to display “No Kings” messages. The first national Visibility Brigade action took place earlier in June, with dozens of groups on more than 60 overpasses in 25 states sending a unified message.

I was on the bridge in Whippany standing behind the words, “NJ Fights Fascism.”

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