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........

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