LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 3, 2020) — This summer, the United States has seen nationwide demonstrations and protests in light of, among other things, the killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis May 25. Local protests, including ones in response to the death of former University of Kentucky student Breonna Taylor during a "no-knock" warrant raid in Louisville on March 13, quickly spread across the country, and The New York Times cited polls that estimated, as of July 3, between 15 and 26 million people had participated at some point in the demonstrations, making them the largest in U.S. history.

On this week’s episode of "Behind the Blue," Assistant Professor Eladio Bobadilla of the University of Kentucky Department of History discusses these movements and helps provide some context to what we’re seeing. “Historically, only sustained, prolonged, well-organized movements have accomplished meaningful political and social change,” explains Bobadilla, discussing the arc of social movements. “Successful movements take time, they take pressure, they take criticism, they take organization, and they take sacrifice. I think if I were to sum up the history of social movements, when a movement succeeds those are the elements that it requires.”

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