Racial Justice in the U.S.: Social Protest

Rachel Wahl article published in Human Rights Quarterly 39, no. 4 (2017): 811-831.
"A new civil rights movement sweeping the United States has rallied around protecting the rights of people of color in the face of police violence. What is seldom recognized is how activists’ strategies can undermine each other. Activists who pressure the state for police accountability risk diminishing their efforts to build relationships with officers. Dialogues that cultivate relationships can sideline police accountability. Observations of forums between the police and communities as well as interviews with both groups reveal why efforts to improve police treatment of people of color are politically and ethically fraught and how activists might mitigate these paradoxes."

“[S]tates have introduced at least 154 bills or executive orders to restrict peaceful protest, according to a HuffPost analysis of the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law’s tally, a new report from PEN America, and interviews with free speech experts. So far, 54 have become law.”

Discusses “research on violence at protests“ showing that coercive police action at protests escalates violence. Also considers successful police strategies to de escalate, such as “the Madison Model.”

Drake guidance on health and safety at a protest or counter-protest.

Resources for organizing, attending, taking pictures at, or being stopped by police at a protest.

Answers to 11 questions about protesting from an ACLU staff attorney and a Con Law professor.

Ten key resources from the ICNC for activists and organizers.