Protest

July 4 Was Once a Day of Protest by the Enslaved

by Matt Clavin

The public declarations of freedom and political equality that accompanied Independence Day were a prompt for protest, escape, and rebellion for the enslaved. 

The Targeting of Bail Funds is an old Weapon in the Civil Rights Backlash

by Say Burgin and Jeanne Theoharis

Atlanta and Georgia law enforcement's arrest of the leaders of a fund dedicated to securing bail for protesters opposing "Cop City" shows that protest movements have long depended on bailing out activists, and the forces opposed to change have long known it. 

New Book Says Cure for Girls in Crisis is Revolution

Mattie Kahn's new popular history of girls' activism spans centuries and class and ethnic divides, showing the power of young women to change what they can't accept. 

Can Activists Use Banking Regulations to Force Decarbonization?

by Bart Elmore

After Clinton-era reforms enabled consolidation of the banking industry, environmental groups in the early 2000s began to target the commercial banking sides of the firms that raised capital and provided credit to the fossil fuels industry. 

"Salts" are Part of Labor's Fight to Organize. They were once Part of the Antiwar Movement

by Derek Seidman

Taking a job with the covert intention of organizing the workplace is a time-honored labor tactic that's back in the news. Some dedicated activists in the 1960s "salted" the U.S. military in the hopes of building an antiwar movement within the ranks. 

Bull Connor's Police Dogs Shocked the Nation in 1963, but they were an American Tradition

by Joshua Clark Davis

"In 1963 liberal critics condemned the Alabama city’s K-9 unit as a relic of the Old South. The harder truth to accept, however, was that it was actually a product of a new America."

How a Little-Known Anti-Vietnam Protest Reverberates Today

by Gary B. Ostrower

A 1968 disruption of an ROTC ceremony at Alfred University in 1968 involved just 15 students and 2 faculty. It won't be remembered with Berkeley or Columbia in the annals of student protest, but it made a significant impact on the legal requirements placed on universities' policies for dealing with student protest. 

Political Pundits, Apply the "Resentment" Label with Caution

by Robert A. Schneider

As the brief respite between two Trump-Biden races reaches its end, "resentment" is once again the go-to political explanation. But too often the term is used to describe voters as irrational and unhinged while obscuring some real causes of moral aggrievement in contemporary society. 

Black Mothers Bet on Themselves and Changed Las Vegas—Can Their Ideas Still Change America?

by Annelise Orleck

A courageous and politically imaginative group of women challenged the most powerful interests in Las Vegas to win better public aid and build an organization for community service and empowerment. A historian explains who they were, how she came to tell their story, and what it means today.

FBI Releases Bill Russell's File, Which Includes Allegation of Betting Against Own Team

The Bureau's file on the late NBA star demonstrates their suspicion of the civil rights movement and disdain for politically engaged Black athletes. It also contains a memo alleging Russell placed a significant wager against the Celtics as player-coach, although many known facts and lack of follow-up make that allegation doubtful. 

What Has Black Lives Matter Achieved? A New Critique from the Left

by Jay Caspian Kang

Political scientist Cedric Johnson argues in a new book that protest movements have fixated on racial identity at the expense of making a broad critique of how policing defends an unequal and exploitative society and building a bigger coalition for change. Writer Jay Caspian Kang puts this argument in the context of debates about identity politics from the center to the left.

Annelise Orleck on "Storming Caesar's Palace" and the Lessons of the Welfare Rights Movement

by Michan Connor

A leading historian of poor people's activism joins HNN for a discussion of the new edition of her acclaimed book on the Las Vegas Welfare Rights movement, which is the basis for a documentary now streaming on PBS. 

No Blood for Oil: Examining the Movement Against the Iraq War

by Charles F. Howlett

David Cortright's history of the opposition to the Iraq War places the peace movement in the context of the underacknowledged peace movements of the American past. 

Blaming Atlanta "Cop City" Protests on "Outside Agitators" is Familiar and Shameful

by Benjamin Stumpf

Blaming outsiders for grassroots objections to turning valuable parkland over to the police to create an urban warfare training center is an effort to shift blame for violence from police to protesters and to assert that local communities accept the plan. Opponents of civil rights did the same thing. 

After April 4: The 1968 Rebellions and the Unfinished Work of Civil Rights in DC

by Kyla Sommers

As Congressional controversy over DC's criminal law reforms shows, there remains significant unfinished business in the longstanding quest of DC residents to govern their city on their own terms. 

Historian Marc Stein Launches Database Project to Identify LGBTQ Direct Action and Protest

by Marc Stein

A project dedicating to identifying and cataloguing direct protest actions by LGBTQ advocates fills in significant gaps in our understanding of the geography, scope, targets, and demands of protests through the years. 

An American Witness to the European Movement Against the Iraq Invasion

by Brian Sandberg

The European Social Forum, held in Florence in November 2002, didn't stop the US invasion of Iraq. But it did usher in an era of pan-european civic action that remains powerful today. 

Kendi: "Anti-woke" Part of Backlash Against Antiracist Protest Movements

Critics have charged that Ibram X. Kendi's writing portrays racism as an all-powerful and unchangeable force in American society. He says that, in fact, understanding racism as "constructed" means it can be deconstructed. 

Florida Students Plan Walkouts in Protest of Administrators' Cooperation With DeSantis Trans Crackdown

Six colleges are known to have complied with a request by the governor's office for information about health services provided to transgender students, which student leaders say is part of a threat to gender-affirming healthcare in the state. 

Atlanta's HBCU Students Call on Administrators to Oppose "Cop City"

Students say that the proposed training facility in south Atlanta will prepare more police to engage in paramilitary suppression of protest and denounced statements by administrators pledging support for "Cop City."