-
Period: to
The Past 50 Years of Demonstrations
Over history we have witnessed political, civil, social, environmental, and economical strain of sorts. Our first amendment right in the Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." This is a right we need in our lives. -
Brown v. Board of Education
In Brown v. Board of Education, the decision widely regarded as having sparked the modern civil rights era, the Supreme Court rules deliberate public school segregation illegal, effectively overturning "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson. Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing for a unanimous Court, notes that to segregate children by race is wrong. -
March on Washington
President John F. Kennedy meets with civil rights leaders at the White House in an attempt to call off the March on Washington scheduled for August.
Over a quarter of a million people participate in the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, and hear Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech. -
Watts Riots
Soon after police arrested 21 year-old Marquette Fry on a DUI suspicion, a mob began sifting through the impoverished Watts neighbourhood in South Central LA. Over the next six days, the streets of Watts transformed from a poor commerce zone to an all-out battleground with overturned vehicles, buildings crumbled and burned, and 14,000 National Guard troops armed to the teeth. The riots claimed the lives of thirty-four people over the course of the week, and $321 million in insured damages. -
Newark Riots
Less than a year before the King assassination riots erupted, social strife had reached its breaking point in Newark. The city’s highly segregated black community had long borne the brunt of racial profiling, poor education and low-tier jobs, and resentment towards municipal corruption and police brutality was ever-rising. All it took was the traffic arrest of a single cab driver—one John Weerd Smith—and the subsequent rumour that police had killed him, for violence to explode. -
Detroit Riots
Sparked by a police raid on a black power hangout, Detroit erupts into the worst race riots ever in the nation, with 43 people dead, including 33 African Americans and 10 whites. During the nine months of the year, 164 other racial disturbances are reported across the country, including major riots in Tampa, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Newark, Plainfield and Brunswick, New Jersey, which kill at least 83 people. -
Holy Week Uprising
The peaceful preacher’s mysterious assassination occurred just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968; New York City promptly deployed five thousand cops and firemen by nightfall as outrage and violence exploded across more than 100 U.S. cities. For various reasons, the Big Apple managed to avoid the worst of it, with insured damage estimates of $26 million from mob vandalism, looting and arson over the following days. Unlike the remaining entries on this list, the event recorded no deaths. -
Stonewall Riots
A June 27 police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village bar catering to homosexuals, results in two nights of rioting and is the symbolic beginning of the gay rights movement. The event is commemorated each year by Gay Pride demonstrations across the nation. -
Vietnam Protests
Though antiwar demonstrations have been sprinkled throughout U.S. history, perhaps none were more vehement than the outcries against America's involvement in Vietnam. In the frigid fall of 1969, more than 500,000 people marched on Washington to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. -
Roe v. Wade
While there had already been attempts to properly women’s civil rights in society, it wasn’t until the emergence of cases like Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that bought to the public eye the legal issue of a woman’s right to receive an abortion, as well as her rights as a person and citizen. -
First LGBT March on Washington
The first Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights March on Washington draws more than 100,000 people on October 14. In addition to the march itself, the organizers arranged three days of workshops featuring artistic events, strategy sessions, focus groups on specific issues of women and minorities within the LGBT community, consciousness raising, local organization, religion and other issues. -
Miami Riots
What began as a high-speed traffic pursuit for one black man turned into a massive cry of public injustice in downtown Miami in May of 1980, and a gruesome three-mile-wide, three-day-long riot complete with arson, thefts, looting and even reports of sniper fire. Some 3,500 of the National Guard were called in to help enforce the city’s barricaded areas and 8 p.m. curfew, before the random violence finally began subsiding. -
Anti-Nuclear Protest
On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history. -
LA Riots
What made the LA Riots so violent was the level of scandal made possible by the graphic video footage of the beating, shot quietly by an onlooker. Despite claims of intoxication and aggression by officers, King is shown crawling helplessly on the ground as they whip him aggressively for an extended period of time. Media coverage of the incident exploded, and the ensuing acquittal of the police meant terrible tidings for the city. -
Antiglobalization
Corporations have been spreading their wares (and dollars) globally for decades, but that hasn't stopped a dedicated group of protesters from railing against globalization. When the World Trade Organization (WTO) hosted its biannual meeting in Seattle on Nov. 30, 1999, demonstrators took to the streets just outside to protest the increasing unification of the world's economic order, which they claimed widened the gap between rich and poor worldwide. -
The Tea Party Demonstrations
In January 2009, before President Barack Obama's Inauguration, a part-time trader by the name of Graham Makohoniuk posted an invitation on the Market Ticker Forums: "Mail a Tea Bag to Congress & to Senate." The unusual request was in reference to the historic Boston Tea Party protest, whose motto "No taxation without representation" appealed to present-day conservatives who are concerned about Big Government, overspending and taxation. -
Occupy Wall Street
On Sept. 17, 3,000 people assembled at Battery Park with the intention of occupying Wall Street to protest greed and corruption in the government and financial system. During the first week of the occupation, some 300 people camped out, crafted a motto ("We Are the 99%") and organized small-scale marches to protest a system that they say bailed out the banks and left everyone else to fend for themselves. It was a message that resonated. The Occupy movement quickly gained momentum. -
Ferguson Riots
Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. The shooting prompted protests that roiled the area for weeks. On Nov. 24, the St. Louis County prosecutor announced that a grand jury decided not to indict Mr. Wilson. The announcement set off another wave of protests.
