Protest & Pushback
By First Amendment Coalition
Protest & PushbackDec 06, 2021
Protest & Pushback full-length feature
George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police launched a movement that transformed many aspects of American life. Unparalleled in scope, the movement drew strength from the First Amendment’s protections for free speech, free assembly and a free press.
But it also faced a backlash that showed how fragile these First Amendment rights can seem. Arrests and assaults of journalists and protesters soared and state legislatures took up a wave of anti-protest measures. For those exercising their bedrock constitutional rights in this historic moment, the First Amendment could seem tenuous, theoretical.
Is it?
Protest & Pushback explores what the movement for Black lives shows us about the power and peril of exercising our First Amendment rights.
For more information about the project, including additional content and a transcript of the audio, visit https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/protest-pushback.
Introducing Protest & Pushback, an audio feature from the First Amendment Coalition
First Amendment Coalition spoke to journalists and advocates about their own experiences watching an historic moment unfold to understand the role of the First Amendment in social justice movements. Through their lenses, we look at the growing distance between what these rights afford in theory versus reality, especially for people of color.