Nonviolent civil rights protests won sympathy while violent ones fed calls for order
One study of the American civil rights era found a striking split. Nonviolent activism tended to earn favourable press and shift public opinion toward the issues organisers raised. Violent protests generally drew hostile coverage and stirred public demand to restore law and order instead.
A protest is a public act of objection or dissent, ranging from a single person's statement to a mass demonstration. It can be seen as a form of cooperation, since many people show up and share the costs and risks of doing so. Some protesters aim to sway opinion or policy, while others take direct action to make the change themselves. When protest becomes part of a disciplined nonviolent campaign that applies pressure as well as persuasion, it is better described as civil resistance.
Authorities respond in many ways. Permit rules, economic hardship, religious orthodoxy and media monopolies can all restrict dissent, and riot police are a common reaction; observers have noted protest policing becoming more militarised, with armoured vehicles and even snipers. Where open protest is blocked, dissent may turn into civil disobedience, quieter resistance, cultural expression or emigration. Protests also attract counter-protests backing whatever the original crowd opposed, and the two sides sometimes clash.
Ignored protests can escalate into riots, insurgency or revolution. The Haitian Revolution of 1803 became the first successful black revolt against slavery. Several hundred Continental Army soldiers staged the Pennsylvania Mutiny against the government in 1783. In India, Mohandas Gandhi's Salt March of 1930 challenged a colonial tax, and the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York answered police mass arrests of gay people.
The American civil rights movement supplied many landmarks, including the Birmingham Children's Crusade and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, both in 1963, and the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. Poland's Solidarity union protested against Soviet-backed communism from 1980 to 1989, South Korea's June Democratic Struggle pushed for democracy in 1987, and demonstrations on Alexanderplatz from 4 to 9 November 1989 culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Source: Protest
