By Carol Lucas
Time and time again, history has shown that protest works. In fact, it is no stretch to say that our nation was founded through and grounded in protest.
To give you an idea of when and how many protests of import have been carried out in our country, I did my research, and what I discovered took me by surprise. We, the people, have a history of making our displeasure and discontent known by showing up in person.
Consider the saying,”History repeats itself,” something the current administration seems to have forgotten or chooses to ignore. Our history is rife with protest; we know that March 28, 2026 was the third No Kings Day, the current movement decrying the actions of 47 and his minions.
What follows is a long list leading to this history-making event …
First, let me define protest.
It is, according to the Freedom Forum, “Two First Amendment freedoms that are the least known: freedom of assembly and freedom to petition. Freedom of assembly protects the right to gather peacefully. Freedom to petition protects the right to tell government officials without fear of punishment if you think a policy is good or want something to change. When people hold a protest, march or rally, they use freedom of assembly.”
One of the most famous protests historically is the Boston Tea Party, held Dec. 16, 1773. American colonists were upset about British tax policies, particularly on tea. On that day, a group donned blankets, along with paint and feathers, to look like indigenous people. They went to the harbor and dumped the tea from a British ship into the water. Keep in mind there was no First Amendment yet.
The impact of this incident, however, was significant enough to influence the founding fathers when they wrote the Constitution.
Fast forward to March 3, 1913. At that time, only nine states permitted women to vote; Alice Paul found that unacceptable, wanting voting rights for all women. A march was organized for Washington the day before President Woodrow Wilson would be sworn in.
On that day the police and military could not control the crowd, and there were injuries, causing the police chief to resign. Six years later the 19th Amendment gave all women the right to vote.
Think about the assault on voting rights taking place today, 100-plus years later. Not a digression, dear reader, but rather a heads-up!
Of course many of us are of the generation of the Civil Rights Movement, myself included. The time from 1963 to 1965 was particularly heated, with marches in Alabama protesting to seek equal rights for Black Americans.
In March 1965, activists planned a march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights. The governor said the march would not be permitted. Police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge beat the marchers. After footage was shown on TV, President Lyndon B. Johnson promised a voting rights bill. Two weeks later, protesters tried the march again; this time they had federal protection. A national voting rights act became law that August.
The year 1967 saw growing opposition to the Vietnam War, especially among the counterculture movement. The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam organized a protest march from the Lincoln Memorial to the Pentagon.
On the day of the march, music groups like Peter, Paul and Mary performed at the Lincoln Memorial. As the crowd marched toward the Pentagon, police partially blocked the route. Protesters sat until the march could continue. Popular opinion against the war continued to grow.
History does, indeed, repeat itself. Think Iran.
In January 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that a Texas law banning most abortion violated a constitutional right to privacy. The landmark ruling made abortion legal nationwide.
Catholic lawyer Nellie Gray was among the religious leaders who protested the decision. She organized the March for Life a year later in Washington, D.C.
The event sometimes generated counter protests from supporters of abortion access. Thanks to the First Amendment, people of all views did and still can assemble to share their messages.
The year 1990 saw a protest, the nature of which had never been seen before. Numerous disabled individuals, including an 8-year-old wheelchair-bound girl, dragged themselves up 83 steps to the Capitol building to bring about reform. These acts of courage resulted in the Disabilities Act.
March 24, 2018 broguth The March for Our Lives. One million across the nation marched in support of gun control after many students from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida were gunned down. These protesters included those not yet old enough to vote but certainly old enough to exercise their first amendment right.
And so I return to last week’s protest. As I watched TV coverage later in the day, I was at once encouraged, and in one case, amused. The latter focused on a man wearing a light blue hat sporting MAGA. I’m not sure if he was as confused as 47 often appears to be, with the hat’s color, or if that was a message that went over my head. He seemed to be alone and hell-bent on antagonizing the other protesters. This was in West Palm Beach, Fla., interestingly enough.
On Saturday, the people of this country rose up in vast numbers to protest. Some 3,300 events (and an early estimate of 8 million people) protested the current administration and all it is doing to bring down our democracy. Make no mistake, the world watched, and some even contributed. It was Germany who surely recognizes the path we are on that flew a banner in Berlin stating, “We See You, We Are With You.”
I suspect last week’s protest will not be the last. It is, after all, the heart of our nation’s identity.
Carol Lucas is a retired high school teacher and a Lady’s Island resident. She is the author of the recently published “A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey Through Widowhood.”