The Common Ground People's Collective was started by 26-year-old Camryn Bricker and some friends. After Trump's inauguration on January 20, Bricker, a graduate student at the University of Colorado Denver, was eager to answer the call for a nationally coordinated protest on February 5 at all fifty state capitals on the same day, known as the Fifty State, or 50501, Protest.
Bricker moved to Denver from Philadelphia a year and a half ago to study rising sea levels in arctic ecosystems. She wanted to get out to protest in support of environmental rights, she says, but also for her fellow grad students whose hopes for a public sector career seemed dashed by Trump's move to downsize the federal workforce.
"There's a lot of fear in the graduate program, where I'm surrounded by environmental scientists who were all planning to work for the federal government," she says. "A lot of them even lost their internships."
Despite calls for a national protest being posted all over Reddit, Instagram and Blue Sky, no one seemed to be sharing details for a protest in Colorado.
"I had heard about the call to action for this big protest, but it was just something that was on Reddit," Bricker recalls. "Was there actually going to be a protest in Denver? Nobody knew, but everyone was wanting one."
Bricker had attended protests but never organized one, so she enlisted some friends. She started a Facebook page and began posting online fliers for a rally at the Colorado State Capitol on February 5. She was able to coordinate with locals on that page and other internet platforms, where plans were made for public speakers, a march and tents with food, water and information about local activism.
Protesters chanted "¡Viva México!" as they rallied at the intersection of 14th Avenue and Lincoln Street on February 5 for the Fifty States Protest.
Bennito L. Kelty
The Fifty State protest was so fulfilling for Bricker and her group that they've started organizing more.
"On that initial day, when we all got together after speaking online, we were like, 'Wow, we really like this. We're pretty good at this,'" Bricker recalls. "That's when we decided to make a little coalition together, and it grew from there."
Building Momentum
The national success of the Fifty State protests led to the creation of the 50501 Movement, which quickly put out calls for a protest on Presidents' Day on February 17. The Common Ground People's Collective, which Bricker created with a handful of people she met online and at the Fifty State Protest, stepped in to organize Colorado's part of the national effort.
The Common Ground People's Collective posted details of the Presidents' Day protest in Colorado on Instagram, Blue Sky and Facebook. Members of the group also shared information on r/DenverProtests, a new Reddit group formed by a young woman, who, like Bricker, had no protest organizing experience but has since created a hub for protest plans across Colorado.
Bricker says the Common Ground People's Collective was in the lead for the original Fifty State Protest, the Presidents' Day protest and another rally at the Capitol, the March 4th No Kings Protests. All three were part of national calls to protest in all fifty states, and each saw thousands of Coloradans attend.
The whole experience of organizing large protests has been "really exciting," she says. "It was such a great turnout."
Bricker says the Common Ground People's Collective was in the lead for the original Fifty State Protest, the Presidents' Day protest and another rally at the Capitol, the March 4th No Kings Protests. All three were part of national calls to protest in all fifty states, and each saw thousands of Coloradans attend.
The whole experience of organizing large protests has been "really exciting," she says. "It was such a great turnout."
During the protests, the Common Ground People's Collective worked with local groups and chapters like Green Latinos, Students for a Democratic Society, the Denver branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the People's March, a Denver-based group that was also started by a group of young women with no organizing experience.
"We're really mindful about not wanting to step on the toes of other organizations who have been here previously and who have been doing the work," Bricker says. "There's a lot of history of activism in Denver, so we want to support others' protests in any way."
In turn, other progressive activism groups have supported the Common Ground People's Collective. Darlene Jae'eve, the 76-year-old founder of Resistance 5280, is shutting down her organization as she deals with health problems, but seeing the work that the Common Ground People's Collective has done, Jae'eve decided to let the group take over the Resistance 5280 Facebook page and all its 3,200 followers.
Protesters continue showing up in large numbers to the State Capitol for Presidents' Day on February 17.
Bennito L. Kelty
Despite the Common Ground People's Collective's growth, Bricker says it will be stepping aside as the lead local organizer for 50501-affiliated protests; a Colorado chapter of the national group is forming called 50501 Colorado.
The decision mostly has to do with "bandwidth," Bricker adds. "It's kind of hard to run every single protest...but that's not to say we're not supportive of what 50501 Colorado is doing. We're very supportive of what they're doing."
The Common Ground People's Collective will hold onto its social media pages, including the Facebook page that Resistance 5280 handed over, and organize more of its own protests. And when more 50501 protests are scheduled, the Common Ground People's Collective "will still be supporting any way we can," Bricker says. (50501 Colorado's first event was a protest on Saturday, March 15, to rally against executive overreach, according to online fliers. The protest drew upwards of 200 people to the west steps of the Capitol, according to CSP.)
The Common Ground People's Collective now has accounts on Instagram, Blue Sky and Facebook that can be found on Linktree, along with a calendar of upcoming Colorado protests and a sign-up sheet to volunteer.
Bricker is impressed by the wave of activism in Denver that she's seen since Trump returned to the presidency. Her only regret is not starting sooner.
"I wish it could have been throughout the entirety of our lives, but when you have a big push, it requires a big resistance," she says. "We feel like there's no other choice but to protest."
