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More than five months into protests against racism and police violence, Dallas activist Tramonica Brown has seen turnout dwindle.

As the founder of the Not My Son nonprofit focused on police accountability and reform, shes not all that surprised that some people have checked out from the movement.

Anytime something big happens, everybody comes out, Brown said. One, people come out to be nosy. Two, people come out because they want to be seen and they want to think that theyre a part of a movement. And the all-time favorite: They want to take a few pictures and say Hey, I did my part for today.

But she said fewer protesters doesnt mean the support for dismantling systemic racism isnt still widespread. Her organization has shifted its attention toward getting people to the polls, hosting voter drives and other events. Brown said she still sees allies of different racial backgrounds doing work that helps the movement.

I dont consider it a decrease, because I see allies doing the right thing: building up Black people to where they should be, not to the placement of where America would like for us to systematically fall, she said.

Pew Research Center surveys show public support for the Black Lives Matter movement surged in June amid worldwide protests after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on George Floyds neck and killed him. That increase included a swell in support among white people, according to Pew. But a few months later support returned to its pre-June level.

In North Texas, Brown said, the movement against racism and police violence is at a different point than a few months ago. Worries about coronavirus and the election mean the protests occupy a smaller place in peoples minds.

As a result, she said, major events such as a Kentucky grand jurys decision to issue no charges in the killing of Breonna Taylor in September, didnt draw as much outrage as they would have a few months earlier.

Still, Brown said protesters' energy remains strong with or without the massive support they appeared to have several months ago.

Those white allies were not allies that we had to begin with, Brown said. They were just there as an extra body. They helped fill up space.

Black Lives Matter is a decentralized movement, founded in 2013 by three Black organizers after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

According to Pew, 55% of respondents supported Black Lives Matter in a 2017 phone poll conducted nationally. That figure rose to 67% at the height of protests in June. More white people than ever before including 37% of white Republicans said they at least somewhat supported the movement then.

But both of those figures dipped in Pews most recent survey, which was released in September.

Support among whites dropped to 45%, and as low as 16% among white Republicans. Support among Latinos also declined by 11 percentage points, and by six points among Asian-Americans. Support among Black respondents rose to 87% adding one percentage point since June.

Its not just support from white people thats waned, said Dwight D. Watson, associate professor emeritus of history at Texas State University. But he said whiteness in particular allows some to detach from other races' historic moments.

Whiteness gives people the ability to slip in and out of things that other people cant, Watson said.

Watson said individuals' dispositions towards social issues such as racism are heavily influenced by their parents. And since white people dont undergo life on the same terms as Black people, theyre able to check out from movements when they perceive their own privilege to be at risk.

Youre out protesting about police brutality but youve never been a victim of police brutality, Watson said. So, the selfish part of your human nature steps up.

Researchers describe race as just a part of the conversation. Politics also play a role in shaping public opinion, said Juliana Horowitz, associate director of social and demographic trends research at Pew and one of the studys lead researchers.

As with many things that we study, this is very much a partisan story, Horowitz said. We see that frequently, not only in studies of race, but gender and pretty much any social or political issue that we talk about.

Those national trends apply in Texas, said Kenneth Bryant, a professor of political science at the University of Texas at Tyler.

According to a Dallas Morning News-UT Tyler poll released Oct. 25, 72% of Texas Democrats said they had a favorable view of Black Lives Matter, while 83% of Republicans did not.

President Donald Trump has denounced Black Lives Matter, decrying the movement as being violent and destructive, although studies show only a small percentage of protests have resulted in violence or property damage. Democrat Joe Biden has been more supportive, while still distancing himself from some political ideas voiced at some protests, such as defunding the police.

Bryant also found that some respondents reacted negatively to certain slogans but responded more positively to the ideas behind them.

For example, the poll, conducted Oct. 13 through 20, asked whether respondents supported or opposed defunding the police. Only 25% of respondents said they supported the idea at all, and 60% said they at least somewhat opposed it.

But when the survey reframed the idea as cutting some funding from police departments to increase spending on social services in your community, 37% of respondents said they at least somewhat supported the idea, with 49% voiced at least some opposition.

Bryant suspects that a similar phenomenon may be occurring with the phrase Black Lives Matter.

"I gather a lot of white people differentiate between the organization of Black Lives Matter and the idea that Black lives matter,' Bryant said. Some people agree with the notion but disagree with the negative projections that have been put upon the movement.

Across North Texas, protest organizers have seen that shift play out in different ways.

For example, in Plano, thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest in recent months.

Cheryl Jackson, who organized one of those rallies in June, said that she hasnt seen much of a decline in support but that the prolonged effects of the pandemic have been a barrier to change.

COVID-19 stopped all of the movement, said Jackson, the founder of Minnies Food Pantry. I hate that because this is an opportunity for our country to take our conversation about race relations to the next level.

One day before her protest, people staged a demonstration against racism and police violence in the streets of Waxahachie.

Lillian Ayro, a Black business owner and pastor who spoke at that event, called it one of the most remarkable days of her life.

We began to have dialogue; we began to have conversations, she said recently. It was refreshing to hear that conversation going on with my white sisters and white brothers.

Ayro said many of the allies she knows have remained steadfast in their support. She pointed to a Facebook group, of which shes the only Black member, where white women share resources to educate themselves on systemic racism.

Still, she said some people in her community get caught up in leveling unrelated accusations and false equivalencies while ignoring Black Americans' four centuries of accumulated pain.

I think what they forget is that this thing has been going on for so long, Ayro said. People have been silent for so long, and the Black community has been dealing with it for generations and generations.

Brown, the founder of Not My Son, said whites may not see the generational trauma racism has caused.

White people werent hung in front of their mothers and their children, Brown said. (They) dont have to pass by or hear about hanging trees that used to exist.

When protests ramp up again, Brown hopes the people who show up do so because they truly want to see the pain of Black Americans healed.

Fifty years from now, we can be in the same place, Brown said. Thats not good enough. We dont accept that. We want the same respect that you would want had it been you, had it been your ancestors.

CORRECTION, 10:45 a.m. on Nov. 5: This story has been updated to remove a photo of a person who is not a subject of the article.

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Support for the Black Lives Matter movement has decreased significantly since June, local and national polls - The Dallas Morning News