Black Protests in the US, 1994-2010

Using novel data, we provide the first panoramic view of US Black movement protest events as reported in US newswires between 1994 and 2010 and put our quantitative data into dialog with qualitative accounts. Struggles during these years presaged the Black Lives protest waves of 2014-2016 and 2020. Protests increased after the 1995 Million Man March into 2001, but dropped abruptly after the 9/11 attacks. Collective action increased again at the end of the 2000s. Protests in response to police violence and other criminal legal issues were major arenas of struggle and news coverage. Also common were issues of national identity including celebrations of Black history and Black solidarity, protests about Confederate symbols, and protests about White hate groups and hate crimes. While Black people protested about a wide variety of issues, newswires focused disproportionately on incidents of police violence and perceived threats of Black violence. There is substantial continuity in issues, organizations, and activism between this earlier period and the Black Lives Movement of 2014-2020. Content warning: parts of this article describe incidents of police violence.This is a preprint of an article forthcoming in Sociological Science.