Protests are near constant. Do they work? : Code Switch : NPR

A side-by-side of protests from the civil rights movement, versus protests of the 21st century.

Jackie Lay

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Jackie Lay

A side-by-side of protests from the civil rights movement, versus protests of the 21st century.

Jackie Lay

To the casual observer, it might seem like the U.S. has been spent years and years in a constant state of protest, from the Women’s March in 2017 to the racial uprisings in 2020 to the No Kings protests earlier in the summer. But some are starting to wonder: How effective are any of those protests? When it comes to achieving lasting social change, do any of them work?

So on this week’s show, we’re talking to Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, the author of a new book called, A Protest History of the United States. In it, she goes through several hundred years of resistance in the United States to help readers understand what forms of protest have worked in the past, and what lessons people can take from those protesters.

We also talk to Lex McMenamin, the news and politics editor at Teen Vogue, about what they’ve observed while covering recent protests — and what a “win” might look like today.

This episode was hosted by B.A. Parker. It was produced by Xavier Lopez and edited by Leah Donnella. Our engineer was Jimmy Keeley.