"A Protest History of the United States" by Gloria Browne-Marshall

"The world will be made better by those who refuse to be silent." That statement tells you where Gloria Browne-Marshall stands.A law professor atJohn Jay College in New York, Browne-Marshall is the author of A Protest History of the United States, a book that explores 500 years of protest and resistance in North America."The Declaration of Independence is a protest document," she noted.Browne-Marshall said she joined her first protest movement in third grade to pass a tax levy her teacher said would help the schools. "It failed miserably," she said.But that tax levy passed some years later, providing another protest message for the author. "You learn that protest takes time. You have to stay with it," she said.The founder of Martyrs Day, a day to honor the lives of slain American activists, Browne-Marshall said the July 5 commemoration was held officially for the first time this year.The martyrsday.us website provides information on the designation as well as citing martyrs such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Vernon Dahmer, the NAACP official who died when the Ku Klux Klan firebombed his home in Mississippi.As for present-day protest, Browne-Marshall would like to see more definite goals and organization. "The 'No Kings' protest gave me hope--past tense," she said. "I want that hope renewed with a plan."Just going out to wave signs isn't enough, said Browne-Marshall. "I need to see alliances. I'm looking for the creativity. If a plan is not shared with the people out there protesting, it gives me grave concern," she said."There's so much we're not doing when it comes to protest," she said, recalling the impact of past protest tactics such as sit-ins and teach-ins.