Famous protests in US history and their impacts – WNCT

GREENVILLE, N.C. (Stacker.com) On Oct. 21, 1967, 100,000 people came together at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to protest the Vietnam War. Following several speeches, roughly 50% of those gathered walked over to thePentagon where a few hundred people then attempted to levitate the building.

The striking civic protest against the Vietnam War was noteworthy not just for its unusual call to action, but for the new and inventive ways Americans were flexing their right to peaceably assemble. And the Yippies who put on the event inspired countless creative takes on what protest could be, from the Womens Art Movement (WAM) to the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).

The tradition of protesting in the United States is older than the country itself. Weve seen that historic institution in full force with Black Lives Matter protests and, more generally, protests against the storied, systemic racial injustice in the United States. The May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd, a Black man, held under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, sparked protests across U.S. cities and around the world. The protesters called for justice for Floyd and other Black peoplefrom Breonna Taylor to Elijah McClainwho were killed by police, an end to police brutality, a dismantling of racist systems and symbols (includingmemorials to Confederate soldiers), and a greater investment in communities in need.

Theprotests prompted widespread dialogue about racial injusticeand the political and cultural systems that support it. The four police officers involved in the killing of Floydwere chargedwith crimes related to the incident. The Minneapolis City Council agreed todismantle its police forceand rethink how it approaches public safety. And many politicians promised to adjust police budgets so money gets reallocated to support communities directly through improved housing, education, and mental health programs, especially in communities of color.

To understand where the Black Lives Matter demonstrations fit into this rich history,Stackertook a closer look at some of the most famous American protests. Research came from The New York Times, The Week, Time, and Business Insider; government archives; and information from unions and mission-driven organizations. The demonstrations that have made their mark on history range from the Boston Tea Party and Temperance prayer protests to demonstrations for modern-day issues, like civil rights, climate change, nuclear disarmament, reproductive health concerns, LGBTQ+ equality, and gun control.

Keep reading to learn about the important issues that motivated Americans to protestand the impacts of those actions on our society today.

[Pictured: A portrait taken during The Day Without an Immigrant protest on May 1, 2006.]

A group of Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1688 created the first written protestagainst slavery in the new world, according to the Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust. The group saw the enslavement of others as a contradiction to its religious values and its history of fleeing oppression from the British. Sadly, the petition was not formally accepted by the higher governing bodies of the Quakers, but enslavement was eventually banned within the Quaker community in 1776.

[Pictured: A photograph of the original 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery after restoration in 2007.]

Protesters flooded Griffins Wharf in Boston on a dreary December evening in 1773 to demonstrate against the Tea Act, which gave the British government an effective monopoly on selling tea in the colonies. People dumped hundreds of chests of tea from the British East India Company into the wateran act of defiance against British rule without representation of the colonists who just two years later would fight in the American Revolution.

[Pictured: A Currier and Ives lithograph showing the destruction of tea in the Boston Harbor.]

Enraged by a new duty on whiskey and distilled spirits implemented in 1791, farmers in Pennsylvania and Virginia used violence and acts of intimidation in attempts to stop the collection of the tax. They justified their tactics with the belief that they were fighting against taxation without representation. President George Washington and his troops headed to the area with the protests to demonstrate the governments authority to enforce laws.

[Pictured: A painting attributed to Frederick Kemmelmeyer and titled, The Whisky Rebellion, depicts George Washington and troops near Fort Cumberland, Maryland.]

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A group of feminists on July 19, 1848, hosted thefirst womens rights conventionin the United States: the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Around 300 people assembled to protest the governments unequal treatment of women and to call for women to be granted all the rights and freedoms outlined in the Declaration of Independence. The convention gave the womens rights movement the momentum it needed to pursue suffrage.

[Pictured: An illustration of Elizabeth Cady Stanton speaking at the Seneca Falls Convention.]

5 / 49DEA/BIBLIOTECA AMBROSIANA // Getty Images

Violent demonstrations erupted in Lower Manhattan from July 1316, 1863, in response to a decision by Congress to draft men into the Civil War. The protests quickly devolved into a race riot as white protestors (comprised largely of Irish immigrants) began attacking Black peoplemany of whom ended up permanently moving from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

[Pictured: An illustration shows the Provost Marshals office burning during the draft riots in New York City on Aug. 8, 1863.]

6 / 49S.B. Morton // Library of Congress

The Womens Crusade was a religious, anti-alcohol group. Members of the group protested the sale of alcohol through picketing, marching, and public praying outside of saloons in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, and Michigan in 1874. The group was the predecessor to the Womens Christian Temperance Union, which helped pave the way for Prohibition a few decades later.

[Pictured: An 1874 illustration depicts women in Logan, Ohio, singing hymns to aid the temperance movement.]

7 / 49Kheel Center // Wikimedia Commons

Labor rights activists mounted parades to draw attention to dangerous workplace conditions and mourn the victims of a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that killed 146 garment workers in New York City on April 5, 1911. Legislation was passed a few years later toincrease workplace safetyand allow people to work fewer hours.

[Pictured: Mourners picket after the Triangle fire in 1911.]

8 / 49Paul Thompson/Topical Press Agency // Getty Images

An estimated5,0008,000 protestersgathered to march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., ahead of President Woodrow Wilsons inauguration in 1913 to call for womens suffrage. People in opposition to the protest assaulted many of the demonstrators, sparking public outrage that ultimately helped increase support for womens right to vote. It was one of manyprotests for the womens suffrage movement that decade. The 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, was finally passed in 1920.

[Pictured: Women lead the Manhattan Delegation on a Woman Suffrage Party parade through New York City in 1915.]

9 / 49U.S. Army // Wikimedia Commons

Around20,000 veteransand their families assembled in Washington D.C., in June 1932 in anticipation of the passage of a bill that would allow former military members to cash in certificates for $1,000 bonuses early, in the midst of the Great Depression. The bill failed in the Senate, and shortly after, the U.S. Army used gas, bayonets, and other weapons to destroy the camp and chase out the protesters. The act of violence caused public outrage aimed largely at President Herbert Hoover.

[Pictured: Bonus Army marchers struggle with police.]

10 / 49Associated Press // Wikimedia Commons

After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the Black community in Montgomery, Alabama, banded together to boycott the city bus system in December 1955. The boycott lasted more than a year, only ending once a court order forced the Montgomery buses to integrate. The protests thrust Martin Luther King Jr. into a major leadership role of the civil rights movement.

[Pictured: Rosa Parks after being arrested on Feb. 22, 1956, during the Montgomery bus boycott.]

11 / 49State Archives of North Carolina // Wikimedia Commons

On Feb. 1, 1960, a group of young African American students protested racial segregation by staging a sit-in at aWoolworths lunch counterin Greensboro, North Carolina. They refused to give up their seats, despite being denied service because they were Black, and even returned the following day with a larger group of protesters. The sit-ins at restaurants popped up in 55 other cities by late March and lasted through July 25 of that year. The protests led to Woolworth Department Stores ending segregation at its southern locations.

[Pictured: Civil rights protesters at a Durham, North Carolina, sit-in dated Feb. 10, 1960.]

12 / 49Marion S. Trikosko // Library of Congress

More than 200,000 protesters gathered for a peaceful demonstration outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to call for racial equality in August 1963. There, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now-iconic I Have a Dream speech. The protest putpressure on President John F. Kennedyto push forward civil rights policies. It also helped get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed.

[Pictured: Looking out on a sea of signs during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963.]

13 / 49William Lovelace/Express // Getty Images

Thousands of peaceful activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. trekked from Selma, Alabama, to the states capital of Montgomery in March 1965 to call for an end to the suppression of Black voters.Protesters were met with violencefrom white supremacist groups and local authorities throughout the five-day, 54-mile journey. President Lyndon B. Johnson would sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965 just a few months later.

[Pictured: Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Loretta Scott King lead the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on March 30, 1965.]

14 / 49Warren K. Leffler // Library of Congress

A wave of civil unrest swept through the nation after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, with the largest riots occurring in Washington D.C., Chicago, and Baltimore. The National Guard and federal troops were called in tostop many of the riots, which left 43 dead and thousands arrested. The riots helped revive a bill for federal fair housing and get the legislation passed in Congress.

[Pictured: A soldier stands in front of the ruins of buildings destroyed during the uprisings in Washington D.C. on April 8, 1968.]

15 / 49Bev Grant // Getty Images

Around 400 second-wave feminists organized a protest of the Miss America pageant near New Jerseys Atlantic City Convention Center on Sept. 7, 1968. They wanted to speak out against theludicrous beauty standardswomen were supposed to adhere to, according to Megan Gibson of Time. The protesters tossed bras and other symbols of oppression into a trash can, which was never set on fire, but still gave birth to the myth of the bra-burning feminist.

[Pictured: Demonstrators protest the Miss America beauty pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.]

16 / 49Peter Keegan/Authenticated News // Getty Images

On June 28, 1969, New York City police conducted a raid on a gay bar called theStonewall Inn. Spontaneous and violent protests and riots occurred immediately after the raid and continued for the next six days. The unrest ignited the gay rights movement around the world.

[Pictured: A group marches up Sixth Avenue during the annual Gay Pride parade in New York City, June 29, 1975.]

17 / 49Garth Eliassen // Getty Images

The streets of Washington D.C., were flooded with more than half a million demonstrators calling for the end of the Vietnam War in November 1969. The protest was part of astring of ralliesthat erupted across the world that year. The war wouldnt end for another six years.

[Pictured: View of demonstrators during the Moratorium March On Washington to protest the war in Vietnam on Nov. 15, 1969.]

18 / 49Walter Leporati // Getty Images

A group of around 100 feministsstaged an 11-hour sit-inat the offices of Ladies Home Journal on March 18, 1970. The protesters called for the magazine to hire women to fill editorial staff roles, including editor-in-chief, commission women writers for columns, increase employment of women of color, and raise womens salaries, among other demands. The protest resulted in the company agreeing to let the feminists create part of an issue of the magazine, and eventually hiring only women editors-in-chief starting in 1973.

[Pictured: Three demonstrators during the Womens Strike for Equality in New York City on Aug. 26, 1970.]

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Around3,000 peoplegathered for an anti-war rally on the Commons of Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Ohio National Guardsman, who had been called to the campus after protesters and local police had a violent confrontation the week before, fired at the protesters, killing four and injuring another nine people. The shootings triggered student strikes nationwide and began the slide into Watergate, eventually destroying the Nixon administration, according to Jerry M. Lewis and Thomas R. Hensley of Kent State University.

[Pictured: View of students at an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio on May 4, 1970.]

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Anti-abortion protesters gathered in Washington D.C., for the first March for Life rally on Jan. 22, 1974. While it was initially intended as a one-time event aimed at pressuring the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the March for Life became an annual event continuing today. In 2020, President Donald Trump spoke at the March for Life, making him the first president to do so.

[Pictured: Anti-abortion demonstrators pass the Washington Monument on their way to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 22, 1979.]

21 / 49Spencer Grant // Getty Images

Take Back The Night events began in Belgium and England in the 1960s to draw awareness to the issue of women feeling unsafe walking on streets alone at night. The movement hit the United States in 1973 at the University of Southern Florida, whenwomen dressed in black sheetsand paraded through the campus while holding broomsticks, demanding that the school open a womens center. Take Back The Night protests now occur annually in communities around the world as part of an effort to end sexual violence.

[Pictured: Participants hold a banner for Take Back The Night in Boston 1978.]

22 / 49Warren K. Leffler // Library of Congress

The National Organization for Women staged a series of marches and protests in Illinois beginning in May 1976 protesting the states resistance to ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The first demonstration drew about 16,000 people to Springfield, Illinois, while a record90,000 peopleattended another march in Chicago on Mothers Day 1980. Illinois eventuallyratified the ERAin 2018.

[Pictured: Womens Equal Rights parade in Washington D.C. on Aug. 26, 1977.]

23 / 49Mark Reinstein // Corbis via Getty Images

After attempting to organize a march for LGBT rights since 1973, activists finally made it happen with the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights on Oct. 14, 1979. The event attracted up to 125,000 members and allies of the LGBT community and urged Congress to pass protective civil rights legislation. It helped make the gay rights movement a national issue.

[Pictured: Attendees gather around the Washington Monument at the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.]

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Around260,000 peopletook to the streets of Washington D.C., on Sept. 19, 1981, for the Solidarity Day march against union-busting. The protest was sparked after President Ronald Reagan fired more than 12,000 air traffic controllers who had been striking for increased workplace safety and higher wages.

[Pictured: Marchers, including Washington Mayor Marion Barry, Lane Kirkland, president of AFL-CIO, Vernon Jordan, and Coretta Scott King, head down Constitution Avenue in Washington D.C. on Sept. 19, 1981.]

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An estimated1 million protestersgathered in New York Citys Central Park on June 12, 1982, to protest nuclear weapons. The event was intended to show widespread support for nuclear disarmament ahead of the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament.

[Pictured: A crowd participates in a peace rally in Manhattans Central Park in 1982.]

26 / 49Allan Tannenbaum // Getty Images

The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament was a cross-country walk organized to raise awareness for the growing threat of nuclear proliferation. Around400 peoplecompleted the 3,600-mile, eight-month journey from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. It ended with the marchers and thousands of supporters singing This Land Is Your Land in unison across from the White House.

[Pictured: The Great Peace March protesters travel across the George Washington Bridge in New York City on Oct. 23, 1986.]

27 / 49LEE SNIDER/PHOTO IMAGES/Corbis via Getty Images

The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, a grassroots organization aimed at ending the AIDS epidemic, got its first national coverage on Oct. 11, 1987, when hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied in Washington D.C. for the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The march was just one of many activities held over a series of six days, which also included the first public viewing of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. It is sometimes referred to as The Great March for its historical significance in the gay rights movement.

[Pictured: Marchers participate in the Gay Rights March on Washington D.C. on Oct. 1, 1987.]

28 / 49Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images

The six days of violent demonstrations of the Los Angeles uprising, also called the Los Angeles riots, occurred from April 29 to May 4, 1992, after four Los Angeles police officersthree of whom were whitewere acquitted of the charges related to their brutal beating of Rodney King, a Black man. The National Guard and the U.S. military were called in to help end the unrest throughout Los Angeles.

[Pictured: A crowd amidst the uprising in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, on April 30, 1992.]

An estimated1 million peopleparticipated in the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation at the D.C. Mall on April 25, 1993. The protesters had seven primary demands, including a civil rights bill to end discrimination against members of the LGBT community and increased funding for AIDS research and treatments, among others. The event helped give people of all sexual orientation greater attention from the media and politicians.

[Pictured: A large crowd cheers at the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Rights on March 25, 1993.]

30 / 49Porter Gifford/Liaison // Getty Images

In an effort to encourage African American unity and promote family values, between 400,000 and 1.1. million peoplemost of whom were Black mengathered in Washington D.C. for theMillion Man Marchon Oct. 16, 1995. The event featured speeches from Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Cornel West, Jesse Jackson, and other prominent attendees. A theme throughout the march and events was for Black people to register to vote as a means to gain more political say-so. Following the events, around 1.7 million African American men became registered voters.

[Pictured: Attendees at the Million Man March raise their hands in fists and peace/victory signs Oct. 16, 1995, in Washington DC.]New From Marvel StudiosAd by Disney+See More

31 / 49TOM MIHALEK/AFP via Getty Images

Modeled after the Million Man March two years earlier, the Million Woman March involved half a million protesters, largely comprised of Black women, parading on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia on Oct. 25, 1997. The daylong event wasintended to unite African American womenand focus attention on issues that affected their families and communities.

[Pictured: Women cheer during a speakers comments at the Million Woman March on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Oct. 25, 1997, in Philadelphia.]

32 / 49HECTOR MATA/AFP via Getty Images

At least40,000 protestors rallied against globalizationand widening wealth inequality on Nov. 30, 1999, outside the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, which was hosting a World Trade Organization meeting. During the protest, demonstrators smashed Starbucks and Nike store windows around Seattle and police arrested around 600 people. The demonstrations proved disruptive to the WTO delegates meeting.

[Pictured: Demonstrators in the streets of Seattle protest the World Trade Organization summit on Dec. 2, 1999.]

33 / 49Mark Wilson/Newsmakers // Getty Images

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Famous protests in US history and their impacts - WNCT