Marching matters
Whether President Trump is able to reignite the coal or steel industries remains to be seen, but one thing already is clear – he could be a boon to placard manufacturers.
Last weekend’s Women’s March on Washington, along with all the marches that happened simultaneously in other American cities, is being pegged as one of the largest protests in American history. Anti-Trump demonstrations broke out in Philadelphia and New York on Wednesday, and there are plans being hatched for scientists to march in Washington, D.C., in opposition to Trump administration environmental and budget priorities.
However, the energy that is taking people to the ramparts is not entirely concentrated on the left end of the political spectrum. Today, the annual March for Life will happen in Washington, D.C., with opponents of abortion taking to the streets and hoping a Republican president, a Republican Congress and a likely conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court will lead to the reversal of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling that led to the legalization of abortion in the United States.
If we are on the eve of a season of protest and counter-protest, the question lingers: Are marches and protests ultimately effective? The sight of thousands of people treading down boulevards in support of one issue or another can make for compelling images on cable news channels. But do lawmakers actually pay attention?
The answer? According to William Hall, an adjunct professor of political science and business management at Webster University in Missouri, is “a resounding yes.”
“You can look at it from any perspective, and you’d be hard-pressed to deny that they affect public policy,” he added.
For an example, Hall pointed to the most hallowed march in the country’s history – the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the Aug. 28, 1963, civil rights protest that drew 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial, including luminaries like Marlon Brando, James Baldwin and Bob Dylan.
It culminated with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, perhaps the greatest piece of oratory in the country’s 240-year history. Within two years, Congress approved and President Lyndon Johnson signed both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act.
“In my view, if there had not been a great march, then there would not have been a Civil Rights Act in 1964 and a Voting Rights Act in 1965,” Hall explained.
Other large marches in America’s history include a 1981 gathering in support of fired air-traffic controllers; a 1969 protest in Washington, D.C., against the Vietnam War; and the 1995 Million Man March, which sought to raise awareness of issues in the African-American community.
Faith Bjalobok, a McMurray resident and assistant professor of philosophy at Duquesne University, went to her first march in the 1960s, when she was a Vietnam War-opposing teenager. She attended the Women’s March last weekend, along with some of her students.
“I think the protests stopped the Vietnam War,” Bjalobok said. As for the more recent marches, she did not believe they would change the president’s policies, but they would help unify various factions of Trump opponents, including environmentalists, LGBTQ activists and American Indians.
“It gives us solidarity,” she said.
In an interview with the Northeastern University website late last year, Sarah Jackson, assistant professor of communications studies at the Massachusetts institution, pointed out that “One of the primary roles of protest is solidifaction – which is the strengthening of the perspective of those who are like-minded. … Healthy democracies cannot exist without protest, which is why totalitarian and fascist governments throughout history have often sought to silence, and sometimes even kill, protesters.”
The March for Life has been held annually since 1974, and Nicole Accordino, the director of youth ministry at St. Patrick Parish in Canonsburg, attended about 10 of them.
“I believe that abortion takes the life of a child, and I believe that’s wrong,” she said.