CHICAGO While much of the country braced for the chaos that is the Democratic National Convention this week, Americans from all walks of life who felt disillusioned by the partys continued support for Israels deadly military campaign in Gaza prepared to make their voices heard within sight and sound of the convention.

On Monday morning, organizers, protesters and media began filling Chicagos Union Park, where the long-awaited March on the DNC was to take place. Organizers and volunteers handed out items like water bottles, snacks and picket signs, while protesters donning keffiyehs the patterned fabric symbolizing Palestinian liberation arrived either individually, with friends or as part of a more official group.

Before the actual march toward the United Center, where the DNC was holding its evening programming, the organizing coalition held a rally at the park featuring a long list of speakers who hyped up the crowd with chants of freedom and demands that the Democratic Party, the Biden administration and the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz ticket take action to secure a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and a U.S. arms embargo on Israel, among other progressive issues.