Photo by Kelly Jordan, Detroit Free Press / USA Today Network
The United States has a long, storied history of protests and uprisings, starting with the Boston Tea Party’s rebellion against British rule. Fast forward two centuries later, public pressure is once again being brought to bear on a society that remains vexed by institutional racism born out of the nation’s slave-owning roots.
When citizens clash with government forces, the effect is powerful, tugging at emotions and stealing headlines. But their power is not episodic but cumulative, historians say, with the most successful civil rights demonstrations creating change through incremental steps, building on one another to, at times, remake the U.S. political landscape.
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