The World Trade Organization meetings in 1999, the Iraq war in 2003, the Tea Party in 2009, Occupy Wall Street in 2011, Black Lives Matter in 2013—major protests in the United States took on a different feel at the turn of the century. And yet, 2017 feels as if something has changed yet again.
Why do some protests succeed and some fail? Why is the Tea Party movement getting a fresh new look? And what is a "Black Bloc?" We recently sat down with Heather Gautney, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology, to learn more.