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Tensions were high as plans were made and changed to hold a protest on June 1, 2020, in the Rio Grande section of Middle Township, at the intersection of Routes 9 and 47. As protests erupted around the country, sparked by the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, several community members braced for the worst as wild rumors flew across social media.

Instead, the event remained a peaceful and emotional moment, finished with a prayer circle in the intersection in which township police officers joined hands with the protesters.

For Middle Township resident Anthony Anderson, that moment seemed to change everything.

I feel like the local officers that did show up, they were there not only to make sure that nothing went wrong but to show their support, Anderson said. He was not there at the protest, but he saw the video and images afterward and saw it as pointing to a way forward.

Floyd died May 25, 2020. Angry protests quickly spread across the country, reacting not only to a single death but calling for a new effort against racism and bigotry. Some locals interviewed for this story see reasons for hope that things will continue to improve.

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In the summer of 2020, Anderson helped found the Progressive Black Initiative of Whitesboro, which sponsored weekly events at the Martin Luther King Center in that section of Middle Township. It continues to work on community service projects. Next up is a family fun night at the MLK center, planned with the township Recreation Department and sponsored by local businesses.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) A 43-year-old man confronted protesters against police violence in a Portland, Oregon, park, told them to leave and then drew a pistol and opened fire, killing a woman and wounding four other people, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

One of the strongest legacies of 2020, Anderson said, was the connections forged with police and local government officials. That may seem counterintuitive for a time seen as one of the most contentious since the 1960s.

They were all humanized and made more approachable, Anderson said. He said law enforcement officers and elected officials used the moment to build new bridges and find new ways to support community members.

In September of that year, Middle Township formed the Law Enforcement Community Engagement Committee, which grew out of the summer protests, as a way to deepen connections in the community. Anderson was among the appointed members.

Another township resident, Crystal Hutchinson, helped organize several marches that summer, including in Wildwood and Cape May.

Like Anderson, she spoke highly of Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland and Middle Township police Chief Christopher Leusner, saying they were willing to listen. She also mentioned Dekon Fashaw in Cape May. He was not yet chief when he was at the Cape May march in 2020, but later became the resort citys first Black police chief.

Contacted later, Leusner sought to spread the credit throughout the department. That included citing Capt. William Adams, the incident commander in Rio Grande.

ATLANTIC CITY Students and teachers took to the streets in Atlantic City Sunday to celebra

I think our officers did a very good job. They were fair and respectful and sought to keep everyone safe, he said. When people are willing to listen and are trying to make things better, I think youre always going to find a partner in the Middle Township Police Department.

He said the police officers and the protesters are all part of the same community. Leusner said his department was criticized for closing the busy intersection for the protest, but he stands by the decision.

Were all in this together, he said.

Not everyone welcomed the marches and protests in 2020.

As protesters marched down the Wildwood Boardwalk, several people yelled their disapproval or displayed it in hand gestures, and there were incidents in Cape May in which business owners shouted at the marchers.

But others joined the march as it made its way along that citys Promenade.

Former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly called Black Lives Matter protesters thugs and anarchists, said there's a lot of respect for the overwhelmingly white truckers who blocked streets in the Canadian capital and shut down border crossings with the U.S. to oppose COVID-19 restrictions.

In 2021, Hutchinson helped organize another march in Cape May, this one for gay rights. She said the gay community came out strongly for the Black Lives Matter events, and she wanted to show support as well. She sees the movements as fundamentally connected.

Theres an intersectionality between the struggle for Black and brown people and the struggle for the queer community as well, she said.

Kaleem Shabazz, an Atlantic City councilman who was involved in the Civil Rights Movement as a teenager, sees the marches of 2020 as part of the continuum of civil rights efforts. He said they reinvigorated the civil rights and social justice movements in the United States.

He believes those efforts today are wider than they were in years past, involving a greater percentage of people from different ethnicities and backgrounds. That includes people who did not march or otherwise get involved, but began thinking about questions of race and justice more deeply.

For us to move past the problems that we have, it has to be a multiracial and multigenerational effort, Shabazz said. Something has happened that is not going to go back to the way it was.

He said the murder of Floyd while other officers watched has galvanized people in a way that has not happened for decades.

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In South Jersey, the movement created some clashes, and even destruction. During a march in Wildwood, passersby yelled out support for police, even as local officers sought to keep the two groups separate, and some used rude language to taunt the crowd.

In Atlantic City, after a protest on May 31, 2020, rioters destroyed storefronts and stole items from businesses. Seventeen people were arrested.

In cities across the country, police and protesters clashed, sometimes for nights on end, with stabbings and other violence reported. There were also cases where police shot protesters, and incidents of violence against protesters were seen as well.

An independent report found that in 93% of demonstrations connected to the Black Lives Matter movement, there was no violence or destructive activity. Still, many see the demonstrations as violent and the movement dangerous. In comments made at a Homeland Security Committee hearing and emailed to district residents, U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, questioned why Black Lives Matter and Antifa were not included by name in a report on domestic terrorism.

Hutchinson decried the violence and destruction that took place around the country. She said the work continues.

In separate interviews, Hutchinson and Shabazz said the next steps include continuing to work toward justice, which they said includes making it easier to vote.

I am very optimistic. We have to realize that we are not perfect, that we have ideals we have to strive for and to realize that we can do better, Shabazz said. I see things changing. Its not overnight like it is on television.

On Oct. 21, 1967, 100,000 people came together at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to protest the Vietnam War. Following several speeches, roughly 50% of those gathered walked over to the Pentagon where a few hundred people then attempted to levitate the building.

The striking civic protest against the Vietnam War was noteworthy not just for its unusual call to action, but for the new and inventive ways Americans were flexing their right to peaceably assemble. And the Yippies who put on the event inspired countless creative takes on what protest could be, from the Womens Art Movement (WAM) to the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).

The tradition of protesting in the United States is older than the country itself. Weve seen that historic institution in full force with Black Lives Matter protests and, more generally, protests against the storied, systemic racial injustice in the United States. The May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd, a Black man, held under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, sparked protests across U.S. cities and around the world. The protesters called for justice for Floyd and other Black peoplefrom Breonna Taylor to Elijah McClainwho were killed by police, an end to police brutality, a dismantling of racist systems and symbols (including memorials to Confederate soldiers), and a greater investment in communities in need.

The protests prompted widespread dialogue about racial injustice and the political and cultural systems that support it. The four police officers involved in the killing of Floyd were charged with crimes related to the incident. The Minneapolis City Council agreed to dismantle its police force and rethink how it approaches public safety. And many politicians promised to adjust police budgets so money gets reallocated to support communities directly through improved housing, education, and mental health programs, especially in communities of color.

To understand where the Black Lives Matter demonstrations fit into this rich history, Stacker took a closer look at some of the most famous American protests. Research came from The New York Times, The Week, Time, and Business Insider; government archives; and information from unions and mission-driven organizations. The demonstrations that have made their mark on history range from the Boston Tea Party and Temperance prayer protests to demonstrations for modern-day issues, like civil rights, climate change, nuclear disarmament, reproductive health concerns, LGBTQ+ equality, and gun control.

Keep reading to learn about the important issues that motivated Americans to protestand the impacts of those actions on our society today.

[Pictured: A portrait taken during The Day Without an Immigrant protest on May 1, 2006.]

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A group of Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1688 created the first written protest against slavery in the new world, according to the Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust. The group saw the enslavement of others as a contradiction to its religious values and its history of fleeing oppression from the British. Sadly, the petition was not formally accepted by the higher governing bodies of the Quakers, but enslavement was eventually banned within the Quaker community in 1776.

[Pictured: A photograph of the original 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery after restoration in 2007.]

Protesters flooded Griffins Wharf in Boston on a dreary December evening in 1773 to demonstrate against the Tea Act, which gave the British government an effective monopoly on selling tea in the colonies. People dumped hundreds of chests of tea from the British East India Company into the wateran act of defiance against British rule without representation of the colonists who just two years later would fight in the American Revolution.

[Pictured: A Currier and Ives lithograph showing the destruction of tea in the Boston Harbor.]

Enraged by a new duty on whiskey and distilled spirits implemented in 1791, farmers in Pennsylvania and Virginia used violence and acts of intimidation in attempts to stop the collection of the tax. They justified their tactics with the belief that they were fighting against taxation without representation. President George Washington and his troops headed to the area with the protests to demonstrate the governments authority to enforce laws.

[Pictured: A painting attributed to Frederick Kemmelmeyer and titled, The Whisky Rebellion, depicts George Washington and troops near Fort Cumberland, Maryland.]

A group of feminists on July 19, 1848, hosted the first womens rights convention in the United States: the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Around 300 people assembled to protest the governments unequal treatment of women and to call for women to be granted all the rights and freedoms outlined in the Declaration of Independence. The convention gave the womens rights movement the momentum it needed to pursue suffrage.

[Pictured: An illustration of Elizabeth Cady Stanton speaking at the Seneca Falls Convention.]

Violent demonstrations erupted in Lower Manhattan from July 1316, 1863, in response to a decision by Congress to draft men into the Civil War. The protests quickly devolved into a race riot as white protestors (comprised largely of Irish immigrants) began attacking Black peoplemany of whom ended up permanently moving from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

[Pictured: An illustration shows the Provost Marshals office burning during the draft riots in New York City on Aug. 8, 1863.]

The Womens Crusade was a religious, anti-alcohol group. Members of the group protested the sale of alcohol through picketing, marching, and public praying outside of saloons in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, and Michigan in 1874. The group was the predecessor to the Womens Christian Temperance Union, which helped pave the way for Prohibition a few decades later.

[Pictured: An 1874 illustration depicts women in Logan, Ohio, singing hymns to aid the temperance movement.]

Labor rights activists mounted parades to draw attention to dangerous workplace conditions and mourn the victims of a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that killed 146 garment workers in New York City on April 5, 1911. Legislation was passed a few years later to increase workplace safety and allow people to work fewer hours.

[Pictured: Mourners picket after the Triangle fire in 1911.]

An estimated 5,0008,000 protesters gathered to march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., ahead of President Woodrow Wilsons inauguration in 1913 to call for womens suffrage. People in opposition to the protest assaulted many of the demonstrators, sparking public outrage that ultimately helped increase support for womens right to vote. It was one of manyprotests for the womens suffrage movement that decade. The 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, was finally passed in 1920.

[Pictured: Women lead the Manhattan Delegation on a Woman Suffrage Party parade through New York City in 1915.]

Around 20,000 veterans and their families assembled in Washington D.C., in June 1932 in anticipation of the passage of a bill that would allow former military members to cash in certificates for $1,000 bonuses early, in the midst of the Great Depression. The bill failed in the Senate, and shortly after, the U.S. Army used gas, bayonets, and other weapons to destroy the camp and chase out the protesters. The act of violence caused public outrage aimed largely at President Herbert Hoover.

[Pictured: Bonus Army marchers struggle with police.]

After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the Black community in Montgomery, Alabama, banded together to boycott the city bus system in December 1955. The boycott lasted more than a year, only ending once a court order forced the Montgomery buses to integrate. The protests thrust Martin Luther King Jr. into a major leadership role of the civil rights movement.

[Pictured: Rosa Parks after being arrested on Feb. 22, 1956, during the Montgomery bus boycott.]

On Feb. 1, 1960, a group of young African American students protested racial segregation by staging a sit-in at a Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. They refused to give up their seats, despite being denied service because they were Black, and even returned the following day with a larger group of protesters. The sit-ins at restaurants popped up in 55 other cities by late March and lasted through July 25 of that year. The protests led to Woolworth Department Stores ending segregation at its southern locations.

[Pictured: Civil rights protesters at a Durham, North Carolina, sit-in dated Feb. 10, 1960.]

More than 200,000 protesters gathered for a peaceful demonstration outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to call for racial equality in August 1963. There, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now-iconic I Have a Dream speech. The protest put pressure on President John F. Kennedy to push forward civil rights policies. It also helped get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed.

[Pictured: Looking out on a sea of signs during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963.]

Thousands of peaceful activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. trekked from Selma, Alabama, to the states capital of Montgomery in March 1965 to call for an end to the suppression of Black voters. Protesters were met with violence from white supremacist groups and local authorities throughout the five-day, 54-mile journey. President Lyndon B. Johnson would sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965 just a few months later.

[Pictured: Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Loretta Scott King lead the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on March 30, 1965.]

A wave of civil unrest swept through the nation after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, with the largest riots occurring in Washington D.C., Chicago, and Baltimore. The National Guard and federal troops were called in to stop many of the riots, which left 43 dead and thousands arrested. The riots helped revive a bill for federal fair housing and get the legislation passed in Congress.

[Pictured: A soldier stands in front of the ruins of buildings destroyed during the uprisings in Washington D.C. on April 8, 1968.]

Around 400 second-wave feminists organized a protest of the Miss America pageant near New Jerseys Atlantic City Convention Center on Sept. 7, 1968. They wanted to speak out against the ludicrous beauty standards women were supposed to adhere to, according to Megan Gibson of Time. The protesters tossed bras and other symbols of oppression into a trash can, which was never set on fire, but still gave birth to the myth of the bra-burning feminist.

[Pictured: Demonstrators protest the Miss America beauty pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.]

On June 28, 1969, New York City police conducted a raid on a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. Spontaneous and violent protests and riots occurred immediately after the raid and continued for the next six days. The unrest ignited the gay rights movement around the world.

[Pictured: A group marches up Sixth Avenue during the annual Gay Pride parade in New York City, June 29, 1975.]

The streets of Washington D.C., were flooded with more than half a million demonstrators calling for the end of the Vietnam War in November 1969. The protest was part of a string of rallies that erupted across the world that year. The war wouldnt end for another six years.

[Pictured: View of demonstrators during the Moratorium March On Washington to protest the war in Vietnam on Nov. 15, 1969.]

A group of around 100 feministsstaged an 11-hour sit-in at the offices of Ladies Home Journal on March 18, 1970. The protesters called for the magazine to hire women to fill editorial staff roles, including editor-in-chief, commission women writers for columns, increase employment of women of color, and raise womens salaries, among other demands. The protest resulted in the company agreeing to let the feminists create part of an issue of the magazine, and eventually hiring only women editors-in-chief starting in 1973.

[Pictured: Three demonstrators during the Womens Strike for Equality in New York City on Aug. 26, 1970.]

Around 3,000 people gathered for an anti-war rally on the Commons of Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Ohio National Guardsman, who had been called to the campus after protesters and local police had a violent confrontation the week before, fired at the protesters, killing four and injuring another nine people. The shootings triggered student strikes nationwide and began the slide into Watergate, eventually destroying the Nixon administration, according to Jerry M. Lewis and Thomas R. Hensley of Kent State University.

[Pictured: View of students at an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio on May 4, 1970.]

Anti-abortion protesters gathered in Washington D.C., for the first March for Life rally on Jan. 22, 1974. While it was initially intended as a one-time event aimed at pressuring the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the March for Life became an annual event continuing today. In 2020, President Donald Trump spoke at the March for Life, making him the first president to do so.

[Pictured: Anti-abortion demonstrators pass the Washington Monument on their way to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 22, 1979.]

Take Back The Night events began in Belgium and England in the 1960s to draw awareness to the issue of women feeling unsafe walking on streets alone at night. The movement hit the United States in 1973 at the University of Southern Florida, when women dressed in black sheets and paraded through the campus while holding broomsticks, demanding that the school open a womens center. Take Back The Night protests now occur annually in communities around the world as part of an effort to end sexual violence.

[Pictured: Participants hold a banner for Take Back The Night in Boston 1978.]

The National Organization for Women staged a series of marches and protests in Illinois beginning in May 1976 protesting the states resistance to ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The first demonstration drew about 16,000 people to Springfield, Illinois, while a record 90,000 people attended another march in Chicago on Mothers Day 1980. Illinois eventually ratified the ERA in 2018.

[Pictured: Womens Equal Rights parade in Washington D.C. on Aug. 26, 1977.]

After attempting to organize a march for LGBT rights since 1973, activists finally made it happen with the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights on Oct. 14, 1979. The event attracted up to 125,000 members and allies of the LGBT community and urged Congress to pass protective civil rights legislation. It helped make the gay rights movement a national issue.

[Pictured: Attendees gather around the Washington Monument at the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.]

Around 260,000 people took to the streets of Washington D.C., on Sept. 19, 1981, for the Solidarity Day march against union-busting. The protest was sparked after President Ronald Reagan fired more than 12,000 air traffic controllers who had been striking for increased workplace safety and higher wages.

[Pictured: Marchers, including Washington Mayor Marion Barry, Lane Kirkland, president of AFL-CIO, Vernon Jordan, and Coretta Scott King, head down Constitution Avenue in Washington D.C. on Sept. 19, 1981.]

An estimated 1 million protesters gathered in New York Citys Central Park on June 12, 1982, to protest nuclear weapons. The event was intended to show widespread support for nuclear disarmament ahead of the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament.

[Pictured: A crowd participates in a peace rally in Manhattans Central Park in 1982.]

The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament was a cross-country walk organized to raise awareness for the growing threat of nuclear proliferation. Around 400 people completed the 3,600-mile, eight-month journey from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. It ended with the marchers and thousands of supporters singing This Land Is Your Land in unison across from the White House.

[Pictured: The Great Peace March protesters travel across the George Washington Bridge in New York City on Oct. 23, 1986.]

The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, a grassroots organization aimed at ending the AIDS epidemic, got its first national coverage on Oct. 11, 1987, when hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied in Washington D.C. for the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The march was just one of many activities held over a series of six days, which also included the first public viewing of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. It is sometimes referred to as The Great March for its historical significance in the gay rights movement.

[Pictured: Marchers participate in the Gay Rights March on Washington D.C. on Oct. 1, 1987.]

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Locals look back at 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and see hope for the future - Press of Atlantic City