Why 300 Quakers Walked to Washington DC

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Discussion Questions

1. Max Goodman discusses the challenge of becoming a “momentary celebrity” within a faith that values humility. He describes feeling like he was enacting an “archetype”. What are the dangers for a movement when its participants become symbols? How can activists navigate the line between public witness and personal ego?
2. The concept of “gospel urgency” is raised, referencing early Quakers who acted as if “Jesus was coming back next week”. What does this kind of urgency look like today? How can communities balance that fiery passion with the slow, deliberate work required for lasting change?
3. The episode concludes that the walk ended not with an answer, but with “better questions” and a realization that the next step is a “larger process of Quaker discernment”. What do you imagine some of those questions might be? What does it mean for the “real work” to begin after the public demonstration is over?

Zack Jackson

Hey friends, it’s Zack. I just want to hop on here real quick here at the beginning to say that the momentum from this community has been amazing. Over the past six weeks, 56 listeners have stepped up to become supporters of the show, and with just two weeks left to reach our goal of 100, there is still time to be a part of it. Your support makes this podcast possible, and as a way of saying thank you, we’ll send you a one of a kind, limited run, not available in stores, Benjamin Lay mug for a monthly donation of $10 or more. Join the team today at QuakerPodcast.com. Thank you. And now, here’s the show. 

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Zack Jackson 

Hey, everyone. Zack Jackson here. It is Monday, May 12, 2025 I am currently walking through West Philly looking for a group of Quakers, specifically looking for a group that is walking from New York City to Washington DC to protest the government’s harsh immigration policies. I know generally where they’re supposed to be right now, but it just occurred to me that I have no idea what I am looking for. I feel like protests are pretty common these days, but what does a Quaker protest look like? I don’t know. All right, I do see a group of people up ahead. They are carrying a number of flags. That’s a good sign. But do Quakers? Do Quakers carry flags? That doesn’t seem like a very Quaker thing to do. Oh, one of them is an upside down American flag, so that’s a good sign. I guess the other ones are yellow and black. They look like those “Don’t tread on me” signs, but they have things on them, like due process, free speech, human dignity. Ooh, I see a Quaker hat. Yes, these are definitely my people, not quite what I was expecting. But to be fair, I don’t know what I was expecting. All right, I’m going in. 

Zack Jackson 

Luckily for me, I found the correct group of protesting Quakers, and I joined them at a brisk pace down Baltimore Avenue. At this point, they had been walking for nine days, spending each evening sleeping on the floor of a different Quaker meetinghouse and eating meals that were prepared for them along their way. It was a beautiful demonstration of the way that helpers and troublemakers often work well together to make a movement happen. This demonstration, this walk, from New York City to Washington DC, was birthed out of a moment of national crisis and a deep commitment to protecting the rights of our immigrant neighbors. In an age of digital outrage and bombastic influencers, this group of Quakers from Brooklyn Monthly Meeting chose a different form of protest. They chose exhaustion over expediency, pilgrimage over petitions. This walk from New York to Washington is what happens when a feeling of powerlessness is channeled into a 300 mile act of will. When I first approached the group, I spoke with one of the organizers, Ross Brubeck, who was carrying the upside down American flag, and he explained some of the nuanced messaging that they were going for.

Ross Brubeck 

We had our first close encounter with violence this morning, not an actual full on escalation towards it, but something that was oriented that way. Fella came out and told us to stop disrespecting the flag, and in the amount of time that we had as we were passing, explained that what we’re doing wasn’t a sign of disrespect, it was a sign of distress, as it’s often traditionally flown in the inverted position to signal distress, which is what we’re, amongst other things, trying to do with the demonstration of signaling that our country is in a state of crisis, at a crossroads.

Zack Jackson 

Alongside the inverted American flag, they carried yellow and black flags bearing phrases from the Bill of Rights, due process, free speech, human dignity,

Ross Brubeck 

We have a series of flags that Max and another friend, Todd Drake has designed for us, which resemble closely the Gadsden flags in color scheme. So the black and yellow very distinct color scheme that I think most folks recognize as being one of a sort of anti authoritarian sentiment, but with certain political leanings,

Zack Jackson 

That’s the “Don’t tread on me” 

Ross Brubeck 

Exactly.

Ross Brubeck 

and we’re looking to take that sentiment and reclaim it for folks who are actually being trod upon.

Zack Jackson 

So what was the distress they were trying to signal? Why choose symbols that risked alienating the very people they might hope to convince? For the walkers, the motivation was both a spiritual calling and a direct response to a political crisis. Organizer, Max Goodman described it as a return to a kind of gospel urgency.

Max Goodman

I think our hope for Quakers is to have sort of a primitive revival. You know, early Quakers were very politically engaged. Were big dissidents were going to jail all the time for their beliefs. And they had a certain fire and urgency that I would call a gospel urgency, right? They were moving like Jesus was coming back next week.

Zack Jackson 

To anchor their modern protest, the group reached back nearly 400 years to a document called the Flushing Remonstrance. In 1657 the colony of New Netherland banned Quakers from worshiping, and in response, a group of non Quaker citizens in the town of Flushing wrote a letter, a remonstrance, to the governor. They defended the Quakers freedom on principle, risking their own safety to stand up for their persecuted neighbors. Here is organizer Jess Hobbs Pifer,

Jess Hobbs Pifer 

And so their neighbors, members of the community who weren’t Quaker, stood up and wrote this document to their representative at the time, Peter Stuyvesant, who was in leading the area that is now Flushing Queens, and said, We don’t, we don’t believe in this. This isn’t right, and we we stand in defense of Quakers, of our neighbors. And so we felt that while it is a scary time to be standing up our our ancestors, Quakers of the past, have taught us the importance of supporting one another, and that message wouldn’t have been carried down to us and all of those who are in Quaker schools or Quaker communities learning about the value of one another if our neighbors didn’t stand up for us way back then, and so now we have a responsibility as Quakers to stand up for for our neighbors. So while there is a level of fear and concern, we as Quakers wouldn’t be here if our neighbors didn’t stand up for us. So it’s time for us to stand up for our neighbors.

Zack Jackson 

But this act of solidarity came at a great cost to the people who signed the original remonstrance. The Governor was furious. He dismissed the officials who signed the letter and had others arrested and imprisoned. They knew the risks and they acted anyway. Nearly 400 years later, that willingness to face a known risk is what connected the modern walkers to those original signers. When asked if they were nervous, they were candid.

Max Goodman

There’s some danger. It’s scary out there. Not everyone agrees with us, which is why we’re protesting, but most people who disagree with us are going to be respectful about it, or are at least going to be safe about it, but maybe someone isn’t going to be so we’re doing this knowing that there are some risks, and you always got to think about those risks anytime you do protests or civil disobedience and weigh the benefit of getting your message out against the possibility that something bad might happen to you.

Ross Brubeck 

What we’re risking is so, so so much less than what other people risk to have a good life in the United States, a lot of people risk their whole lives and their families lives and everything about they know, everything they know to be good and true, just to get here, just to have a chance to have a better life, and we’ve already got a good enough life that we have enough to offer in terms of our own energy and our own time, to be able to take on that risk and know that we’ve got a community around us that’s going to support us if something bad happens, which is the Quaker community up and down the United or the East Coast of the United States.

Zack Jackson 

The core of the protest wasn’t just its symbols, but its method. Walking a slow, deliberate pilgrimage. Instead of simply sending it in the mail, this group of Quakers physically carried the Flushing Remonstrance to their representatives in Washington, walking for upwards of 25 miles a day while spending each night in a sleeping bag on the floor of a local Quaker Meetinghouse. This wasn’t just a gentle stroll through a nice neighborhood, it was a grueling, physical ordeal that pushed the walkers to their limits.

Ross Brubeck 

I was really concerned on certain days for my physical well being, and that is to say, I did injure myself, but it was temporary. And some sometimes those injuries, like it took, took a night to heal, or a couple days to heal, or a week to heal, but I wasn’t, and I’d like to think of myself as being pretty familiar with my physical form, too, but not to the extent that I am now, on account of the fact that I have done something so thoroughly unfamiliar. I’ve never walked that long, that far before in such a short span of time, and I’ve never, I’ve never had to, I’ve never had to, like, look at my feet and be like, I don’t know what’s happening with them like I don’t. I don’t know what, what is, what is going to become of this, and whether it’s going to mean that I can actually walk tomorrow or the next day. But invariably, I did, invariably I was able to get back up and keep going.

Zack Jackson 

This slow, painful process was intentional. It gave them time to develop their message, not in a quiet room, but on the road through conversation.

Ross Brubeck 

It’s because it takes a long time. It’s because change takes a certain amount of time, and that’s not modeled in most of the demonstrations I’ve ever been to as an activist, most of the things I’ve ever organized or seen organized take the form of a small, temporary, brief piece of theater that hopes to capture some kind of lightning in some kind of bottle. What’s happened with us so far is that we’ve had enough time to individually, day by day, night by night, and step by step, come into conversation with different elements in different areas of Quaker life, up and down the East Coast, and ultimately, what we’re doing is taking an opportunity to find a proper amount of time to experience the rate at which things actually resolve. And I don’t mean that necessarily, resolve is in problems, but resolve is in an image in front of our eyes coming into focus, slowly off in the distance coming towards us at three miles an hour.

Zack Jackson 

This open ended approach invited connection and conflict, but halfway through their journey, Something unexpected happened that changed everything. The Associated Press published a story about the walk and their quiet pilgrimage went viral. More on that after the break, 

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Zack Jackson

In a world that often feels full of conflict and division, the Friends World Committee for Consultation is asking a simple question: what can love do?

On Sunday, October 5th, Friends around the globe will be answering that question together. It’s World Quaker Day, and this year’s theme invites us all to Love Your Neighbor.

And that invitation is being felt everywhere… There are Friends gathering for worship in Ghana, community projects in Guatemala, film screenings in Scotland, and the warm hand of fellowship being offered across nearly every continent. Wherever people are gathered, love will be present.

So, how can you join in?

Whether you want to find an event happening near you, or just get inspired by what other Friends are doing, there’s one central place to go: worldquakerday.org.

You’ll find a growing list of meetings for worship, community projects, and other creative celebrations.

Let’s answer the noise of crisis and unfairness with the power of community and love.

Get inspired and find an event near you by visiting worldquakerday.org.

That’s worldquakerday.org

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Zack Jackson

If the first part of the journey was about the walkers sending a quiet message out to the world, the second part was about the world sending an overwhelming response back. When the Associated Press published a story about the walk, their humble pilgrimage became a national spectacle. Tens of thousands of people shared the article across social media, and while that solidarity brought energy to their tired legs, it also created a whole new set of problems and distractions.

Jess Hobbs Pifer 

In my head, there was kind of a period on the walk that was like pre AP article and post AP article, where after the AP article, we just had so many more people watching us and wanting to join us, and and so there was a point where we actually had to close down our sign ups on our web page for folks to, you know, sign up and come walk with us, because we just had so it became a safety issue. Like we had so many people who wanted to join us, I just felt like I was seeing this thing that I felt responsible for ballooning in front of me into something that I didn’t know how to I guess maybe control or control care for, I don’t know, and it just felt very, very overwhelming. I think I learned a lot from some of that discomfort. From some of those challenging days.

Zack Jackson 

The sudden publicity was a logistical nightmare, but it also forced the organizers to grapple with a new reality. What does it mean to be a momentary celebrity in a faith tradition that values humility and equality? For Max, it’s a core challenge for the movement ahead.

Max Goodman 

What I’m learning, something about fame and Quakerism, because it’s, it’s very weird to be a momentary celebrity within the community, and it’s, it’s okay, because I just need to wait a couple months and it’ll go away again. But the way that our reception changed after the AP article was really interesting. A lot of doors opened, and there’s clearly momentum and use to be gained from that. I was talking to Ross about it when I think the AP image first came out, and I was like, we’re now, we’re putting on these masks or work becoming these like symbolic archetypes of Quaker activists, and whether we deserve to wear the mask isn’t the important part, because we’re like doing acting this ritual of of people relating to the mask. And yet, like you can get confused and start thinking that you are the mask of fame, you’re the archetype that you’re enacting in this moment. 

Zack Jackson 

Energized by national media attention and overwhelming support from within Quaker circles, the group marched on, and after three weeks of walking, canoeing, discerning and communing, they reached their destination,

Max Goodman

Dear friends, we have walked to Washington.

Zack Jackson 

However, it wasn’t quite what they had expected,

Max Goodman

But the day that we arrived was the day that the so called “Big, Beautiful Bill”, the disastrous budget update, was going into a vote on the House floor, so it had gone to a vote earlier than expected. That the night that we arrived in Washington, we’re staying at friends made in Washington, and so all of the reps who we had been speaking to about coming to meet us were asleep because they had been up till 3am trying to speak against the bill

Zack Jackson 

For the organizers, this final day was the peak of logistical complexity. After three weeks of managing a moving community, the pressure of the culminating event meant that the spiritual core of the walk was almost entirely eclipsed by the stress of simply getting it done. And with the number of walkers having ballooned to almost 100 that is no small task.

Max Goodman

And that’s like, you know, a fairly good stretch of walkers like that stretch that crowd out down a sidewalk, and they’re like, halfway between the Capitol and the and the Washington Monument. So it felt like a strong culmination, but I think I could only experience that with a third of my brain, because two thirds was just on marshaling and logistics and rolling with the changes.

Jess Hobbs Pifer 

I sort of feel like I was in this haze of like, where do you need to be? How can I get you there? Like, are you okay? What do you need? You know we like, we go to lobbying appointments, and I’m still sitting there having this conversation that I’ve been thinking about for months, but in that conversation when there’s a lull in my thoughts or a moment where I’m not fully present, the thing that’s pulling me away is like, Is everyone okay? Are they where they need to be like, What? What am I supposed to be doing next to make this continue to work?

Zack Jackson 

But despite the anti climax and the logistical complexity, the group marched on, the walk was always designed to be a two pronged effort, a public symbolic pilgrimage and a series of concrete political actions, the group partnered with FCNL, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobbying group in Washington, to turn their protests into policy demands,

Max Goodman

But we made sure that we had the original Flushing Remonstrance and the 2025 Washington Remonstrance handed to every representative that we had any kind of lobbying engagement with, whether that was a walk in or a scheduled thing.

Jess Hobbs Pifer 

A lot of our visits were really heavily supported by FCNL, who is an amazing organization that does this Quaker lobbying all over the country, and so they helped get these packets together. Wind of the Spirit also helped get these packets together. But yeah, we had packets that had policy issue areas outlined, and then also the new and old Remonstrance. 

Zack Jackson 

With the lobbying visits divvied up and ready to go, the group was left with one final public act. Since there were no representatives to receive their message, they had to improvise an ending. So recalling Martin Luther’s dramatic act of nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenburgh Castle Church, the group found an old, heavy door in the basement of the Friends Meeting of Washington and carried it to the National Mall standing in front of the Capitol Building

Ross Brubeck 

And have one of our organizers, Diana Mejia, walk up to it with the Flushing Remonstrance, and take a hammer and a nail and nail it to the door.

Max Goodman

It was also just an image that felt emotionally charged in the right way, right we were making a declaration to a government that we know doesn’t really want to hear it.

Jess Hobbs Pifer 

I remember, you know, nailing the remonstrance to the door and then kind of looking around and being like, All right, folks, that’s a wrap. We’re handing this off to FCNL, and, you know, good luck with your lobbying visits.

Zack Jackson 

But that wasn’t really the end. The real work began after the walking stopped. The true conclusion wasn’t a single event on the National Mall, but a quiet, deliberate process of going home to think, to integrate the experience and to discern what could come next.

Ross Brubeck 

Yeah, it’s taken some integration. I think, I think that we, over the past month, I’ve been working towards really integrating the experience into our understanding of our place in New York and our place in the meeting in Brooklyn, and then our place also within you know the organization such as it is of friends who led the walk.

Max Goodman

And so we found ourselves in this place where, like, we’re not really the right people to be figuring out the next step by ourselves, and we have created this network like the coolest thing about what we just did is realizing how close together all these Quaker communities and congregations are in physical space and in their feelings around around witness and activism. So the next thing that makes sense to do is to have a larger process of Quaker discernment.

Jess Hobbs Pifer 

I think seeing how many people are willing and interested and excited to step out of that paralysis, if they’re given the place to do so, I think seeing that was really important for me, both in, you know, shaking off my own paralysis and being like people want to do something, they just need to know what to do.

Zack Jackson 

The walk ended not with a single answer, but with better questions. It forged a path, created a space for others to join, and transformed a centuries old document into a living commitment to stand up for your neighbors, step by step. 

Zack Jackson

Thank you for listening, and thank you to our guests, Ross Brubeck, Max Goodman and Jess Hobbs Pifer for discussion questions, a transcript of today’s episode and links to both the old and new remonstrance. Make sure you check out Quakerpodcast.com and while you’re there, be sure to subscribe. 

Also, we are proud to announce that Thee Quaker Project has launched a new project called Quaker Videos, and we have just released our first episode, which is about this walk. So if you want to see what this walk looked like and meet some of the other organizers, head over to Quakervideos.com or search for Quaker Videos on YouTube. 

This episode was hosted, produced and edited by me. Zack Jackson, Jon Watts wrote and produced the music. Thee Quaker podcast is a part of Thee Quaker project. We are a non profit Quaker media organization dedicated to giving Quakerism a platform for the 21st Century. If you like what we’re up to, please consider becoming a monthly supporter. You can go to Quakerpodcast.com and click support in the top right window. Takes less than five minutes, and we really appreciate it, and now our Daily Quaker message as read by Grace Gonglewski.

Grace Gonglewski 

Sarah Briggs, 1992 I serve because I love God. My service, my work, is an expression of my love for everything that is of God. So while the work I am asked to do may be difficult and demanding, it is, in the end, the most joyous and wondrous thing we can do.

Zack Jackson 

To get Quaker wisdom in your inbox every day, go to dailyquaker.com that’s dailyquaker.com.

Hosted, produced, mixed, and mastered by Zack Jackson.

Original music and sound design by Jon Watts (Listen to more of Jon’s music here.)

This season’s cover art is by Todd Drake

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