*All photos made in Columbia, SC on April 19, 2025 by Sean Rayford*

“Whether you are a person of faith, questioning faith, healing from faith, or walking your own unique spiritual path, you are welcome here, and I am so honored to stand with you,” said Regina Moore from the steps of the South Carolina Statehouse on Saturday afternoon in Columbia.

Speaking to hundreds of demonstrators during another national day of action against the Trump administration, the executive minister and CEO of the South Carolina Christian Action Council was first on the microphone after 50501 organizing liaison Sam Gibbons.

“Today is April 19, Holy Saturday. In my tradition, it's a day called in between a day after deep loss and a day before new life. A day of silence when hope feels buried and the future unclear, and I believe that's the place many of us know too well,” continued Moore.

“Some of us have lived through the kind of pain that makes silence feel deafening. Some have trusted people or systems who claim to speak for love, but instead use power to harm them. And still —- you showed up and you kept moving, and you kept hoping. That my friends, is a kind of resurrection in itself.

“Some of us have lived through the kind of pain that makes silence feel deafening. Some have trusted people or systems who claim to speak for love, but instead use power to harm them. And still, still, you showed up and you kept moving and you kept hoping. That my friends, is a kind of resurrection in itself.

“So today, I don't come to preach a doctrine. I come to speak as a fellow human being grounded in the love that I believe belongs to everyone. So I come with a truth.

Darkness does not have the final say. Tariffs do not have the final say. Fear does not have the final say.

“You see, in my tradition, Holy Saturday is the day that even the story of Jesus goes silent. The voice that healed, that confronted injustice is in silence, the one who fed the hungry, welcomed the outcast and challenge power is in the grave. It looks like the end.

“It feels like hope has been buried. But even in that silence, something sacred is happening.

When I say justice, you say peace!”

“And I want to be clear, Unity doesn't mean that we all look the same. Unity doesn't mean that we all pray the same. Unity doesn't mean that we will all believe the same. Unity means that we choose each other.

“We choose connection over isolation. We live in a world and in a state where injustice is allowed, where executions are happening at record number, where hate crime laws are still missing, where families are drowning in debt over high interest rates, where children's health care is debated about like a budget item, not a birthright, where people are crying.”

About the author: Sean Rayford is a photojournalist based in South Carolina freelancing with folks like The New York Times, Getty Images, The Associated Press and others. If you’d like to learn more about photography, Sean offers online photography lessons.

Nationwide protests continue