How Mass Protests End
When the current wave of demonstrations dies down, the movement won’t go away.
Since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, crowds demanding racial justice have surged into public spaces across the country and throughout the world—with solidarity actions springing up in South Korea and South Africa, Argentina and Australia. Domestically, demonstrations have materialized not only in major cities, but also in small-town America, including places with deeply conservative populations. As several political scientists noted in The , "The United States rarely has protests in this combination of size, intensity and frequency; it usually has big protests or sustained protests, but not both."
