Topline
San Antonio maintained its reputation as host of one of the largest Martin Luther King Jr. marches in the country this year, when an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets in January to commemorate what would have been his 94th birthday—marking one of the biggest political rallies so far in 2023.
Striking teachers and supporters rally outside Los Angeles City Hall amid negotiations with the Los … [+] Angeles Unified School District on January 18, 2019. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Key Facts
After the pandemic canceled the San Antonio Martin Luther King Jr. Commission’s annual marches to honor the civil rights leader in 2021 and 2022, an estimated 100,000 people were in attendance at the 36th annual march on January 16, the day after what would have been King Jr.’s 94th birthday, according to data from the Crowd Counting Consortium.
Approximately 80,000 people protested across Los Angeles in favor of higher pay for Los Angeles Unified School District teachers over several days in March, when a contract dispute led to a teacher’s strike and a three-day closure of the nation’s second-largest school system.
For months, demonstrators descended on Los Angeles in solidarity with protesters in Iran against the country’s Islamic regime, culminating in an approximately 90,000-person demonstration at Los Angeles City Hall on February 11, the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, according to figures reported by Los Angeles Magazine, citing police on duty, though the Crowd Counting Consortium estimates approximately 20,000 were in attendance.
The annual March for Life on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall attracted approximately 50,000 anti-abortion protesters on January 20, and another 50,000 were in attendance at the “Walk for Life West Coast” in San Francisco the following day, according to the Crowd Counting Consortium.
Tens of thousands of people showed up for former President Donald Trump’s first major campaign rally of 2024 in Waco, Texas, in January, but the crowd size has been widely disputed—Trump claimed 25,000 were in attendance, consistent with estimates from the Crowd Counting Consortium, but local media reports between 15,000 and 18,000 were there.
Big Number
4.6 million. That’s the estimated number of people who attended the January 21, 2017 Women’s March in Washington and other locations throughout the country to advocate for gender equality as Trump’s inauguration prompted fears women’s rights would be compromised. It’s the largest recorded single-day political demonstration in U.S. history.
Surprising Fact
The Crowd Counting Consortium, operated by Harvard Kennedy School Professor Erica Chenoweth and University of Connecticut Professor Jeremy Pressman, was founded to record the number of participants in the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. Chenoweth and Pressman rely on publicly reported estimates of protest and political rally crowds, along with news sources, police data and photos, they explained in the Washington Post.
Tangent
Several violent killings of minority men, including some at the hands of police, drew protesters to the streets in cities across the U.S. this year. Protests broke out in major cities from New York to Portland over the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, who died three days after he was beaten by Memphis police officers in a traffic stop encounter captured on video. Nichols and the five police officers who were fired and charged with his murder are Black. In New York City, protesters called for the arrest of Daniel Penny, a white former Marine, who restrained Jordan Neely, a Black man with a history of mental illness and homelessness, in a fatal chokehold inside a Subway car last month. Penny, who claimed Neely was threatening other passengers, was arrested a week later and charged with second-degree manslaughter and negligent homicide in an incident that has become a flashpoint in the debate surrounding racially motivated violence against minorities and a lack of adequate resources and humane treatment for people experiencing homelessness and mental illness.
Further Reading
Tyre Nichols’ Death: Footage Of Nichols’ Fatal Beating Sparks Protests Nationwide (Forbes)
Right-Wingers Rally Around Daniel Penny After Indictment—In Latest War On ‘Woke’ Criminal Justice System (Forbes)
Trump Says He’s ‘The Most Innocent Man’ At First 2024 Rally Ahead Of Possible Indictment (Forbes)
Những sinh viên của trường Los Angeles High School cho biết họ đã tham gia cuộc biểu tình mà các giáo viên đã lãnh đạo để kêu gọi cho việc tự do cho Iran trong bối cảnh biểu tình năm 2023.
Với biểu tình, những sinh viên độc lập của trường mầm non truyền cảm hứng cho khu vực Los Angeles và toàn quốc Mỹ qua một tuần trăn trở lại các yêu cầu của họ. Họ đã lên tiếng trong một vài tốc độ bất thường ngắn gọn và ý nghĩa: “Tự do cho Iran!”
Cuộc biểu tình buộc tội Iran về sự suy thoái trong lĩnh vực chính trị, văn hóa, kinh tế và quyền con người. Những người hỗ trợ biểu tình cũng truyền cảm hứng cho chính quyền Iran đáp lại một cách phù hợp để thể hiện sự biểu lộ và chia sẻ ý kiến của chúng.
Những sinh viên của trường Los Angeles High School thể hiện những ý tưởng mới mẻ về cách diễn đạt cho một cuộc biểu tình. Họ tin rằng biểu tình có thể nâng cao ý nghĩa của tự do trong các mô hình quốc xã và trong xã hội. Với những nhận định đó, các giáo viên, học sinh và sinh viên Los Angeles đã nổi bật lên về mặt quốc tế khi họ tham gia vào biểu tình để đại diện cho những nhu cầu của họ.
Cuộc biểu tình này chắc chắn sẽ tạo ra nhiều tác động lớn trong hoàn cảnh biểu tình của Iran trong năm 2023. Nó sẽ mang lại ý nghĩa nghị định cho cộng đồng quốc tế và cộng đồng Mỹ.