When movements for liberation grow strong enough to demand systemic change, backlash follows, so our responsibility is to safeguard protest as a fundamental, living right, & to honor Black freedom struggles not just in memory, but in action. Black history is American history. #TodayInProtestHistory
#TodayInProtestHistory: On February 28, 1969 we remember a powerful moment when the #BlackPanther Party mobilized at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia to resist legislation designed to suppress their organizing and undermine their right to bear arms and assemble.
#TodayInProtestHistory
2/27/1973 marked the beginning of the #WoundedKnee Occupation, when members of the American Indian Movement took a stand at the location of the 1890 massacre to demand the U.S. honor its Treaties & investigate corruption & violence impacting Indigenous Peoples on Pine Ridge.
#TodayInProtestHistory: Violent Attacks on Water Protectors at Standing Rock 🧵👇
On November 20, 2016, police violently attacked Indigenous Water Protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation during the Indigenous-led protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
#ProtectTheProtest
#TodayInProtestHistory: The Birmingham Church Bombing
On September 15, 1963, white supremacists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four Black girls: Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. They were preparing for Sunday service.
Protesters at the March on Washington.
#TodayInProtestHistory: The March on Washington.
On August 28, 1963 more than 250,000 people gathered in D.C. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was a turning point in the fight for civil rights, and proof that mass protest can shift public opinion and force political change.
Protestors holding a "Justice for Jacob" banner in Kenosha Wisconsin in 2020. Photo from Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association (MTEA).
#TodayInProtestHistory: Kenosha Unrest
On August 25, 2020, Kenosha, WI, became a flashpoint in the national uprising for racial justice as protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake entered a third night. What unfolded showed the power & peril of protest in an era of rising authoritarianism.
