LibGuides: Know Your Rights!: Protester's Rights

EBooks

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By Any Media Necessary by Henry Jenkins; Sangita Shresthova; Liana Gamber-Thompson; Neta Kligler-Vilenchik; Arely Zimmerman
Call Number: Kendall campus, HQ799.2.P6 J45 2019
ISBN: 9781479899982
Publication Date: 2016-05-03
The participatory politics and civic engagement of youth in the digital age. Read Online at connectedyouth.nyupress.orgThere is a widespread perception that the foundations of American democracy are dysfunctional, public trust in core institutions is eroding, and little is likely to emerge from traditional politics that will shift those conditions.
Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenoweth; Maria J. Stephan
Call Number: West Campus, JC328.3 .C474 2011
ISBN: 9780231156820
Publication Date: 2011-08-09
For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals.
Rethinking Gandhi and Nonviolent Relationality by Debjani Ganguly (Editor); John Docker (Editor)
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9780415437400
Publication Date: 2008-02-26
This book presents a rethinking of the world legacy of Mahatma Gandhi in this era of unspeakable global violence. Through interdisciplinary research, key Gandhian concepts are revisited by tracing their genealogies in multiple histories of world contact and by foregrounding their relevance to contemporary struggles to regain the 'humane' in the midst of global conflict.
Civil Disobedience by Piero Moraro
Call Number: North campus, JC328.3 .M65 2019
ISBN: 9781786607164
Publication Date: 2019-07-16
What is the difference between civil and uncivil disobedience? How can illegal protest be compatible with a democratic regime based on the rule of law? Is Edward Snowden a civil disobedient? This book follows the philosophical debate around these and other issues, showing how the notion of civil disobedience has evolved from a form of passive resistance against injustice, to an active way to engage with the political life of the community.

Relevant Articles

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Protests as Strategic Games: Experimental Evidence from Hong Kong's Antiauthoritarian Movement.
A peer-reviewed study by Davide Cantoni, David Yang, Noam Yuchtman, and Jane Zhang for the Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2019.
Disobedience, Civil and Otherwise.
A peer-reviewed article by Candice Delmas for the Journal of Criminal Law & Philosophy, March 2017.

“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?”

– Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Protests & Civil Disobedience

Bill of Rights Institute: Civil Disobedience
Documents of Freedom: Civil Discourse and Petitioning, The Civil Rights Movement
Including external documents such as "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau (full version), Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. (full text and audio), Gandhi and Civil Disobedience – Constitutional Rights Foundation, and the Civil Disobedience and Non-Violent Action – The University of Texas Politics Project

Protesting in Florida

ACLU Florida: Demonstrations and Protests
The right to join with fellow citizens in protest or peaceful assembly is critical to a functioning democracy. But it is also unfortunately true that governments and police can violate this right – through the use of mass arrests, illegal use of force, criminalization of protest, and other means intended to thwart free public expression.

Protest Related Laws Proposed/Defeated/Passed by States

US Protest Law Tracker
The US Protest Law Tracker, part of ICNL’s US Program, follows initiatives at the state and federal level since November 2016 that restrict the right to peaceful assembly.

Library Collections on Protests

Digital Public Library of America: Activism in the US
The United States has a long history of activists seeking social, political, economic, and other changes to America—along with a history of other activists trying to prevent such changes. American activism covered a wide range of causes and utilized many different forms of activism.
LOC: Protests That Changed America- The March on Washington
The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the most significant protests in American history, bringing more than 250,000 marchers from across the nation to state an unforgettable claim for racial and economic equality.
LOC: Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party
This collection includes 448 digitized photographs selected from approximately 2,650 print photographs in the Records of the National Woman's Party, a collection of more than 438,000 items, housed in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.
National Archives: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded February 1, 1960 at Shaw University in North Carolina. The committee was formed by black college students with the assistance of activist Ella Baker. Initially, SNCC followed the nonviolent teachings of Rev. James Lawson and the peaceful protest practices of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Organizations that Help

American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU: Protester's Rights
The First Amendment protects your right to assemble and express your views through protest. However, police and other government officials are allowed to place certain narrow restrictions on the exercise of speech rights. Make sure you’re prepared by brushing up on your rights before heading out into the streets.
Amnesty International: How to Protest Safely
Everyone has the right to assemble and to peacefully protest.
Florida Bail Fund
What is the Florida Bail Fund? The Florida Bail Fund @ the Florida Justice Center is a new effort supporting protesters on the front lines of the fight against racism, homophobia, sexism, mass incarceration, police brutality, and the criminalization of poverty.
Proteus Fund
Proteus Fund partners with foundations, advocates, and individual donors to advance democracy, human rights and peace. As the full-service philanthropy organization, Proteus Fund brings funders and movement leaders together to create the collaborative systems and strategies needed to create and protect enduring social change.

Open Source Articles

The Harvard Gazette: Nonviolent resistance proves potent weapon
Recent research suggests that nonviolent civil resistance is far more successful in creating broad-based change than violent campaigns are, a somewhat surprising finding with a story behind it.
Harvard Business Review: How Protests Become Successful Social Movements
There are clear reasons why some movements languish and fade away while others succeed, and activists need to take history’s lessons to heart. To truly make an impact, a movement needs to follow five steps: ...