How Does a Protest Make Change?

First, we have to define what a successful protest even is. Protests arguably succeed whenever they have the “capacity to exercise power,” says Pat Gillham, a sociology professor at Western Washington University. And power can take many forms: For example, a protest may have cultural power, which is the ability to change “public opinion about a topic” or “language on a topic.” Think, for example, of the term “climate crisis,” which became more widely used after the Extinction Rebellion—or “Black Lives Matter,” which became a rallying cry after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder in the death of Black teenager Trayvon Martin.