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My latest: Protests are pretty much never seen as "civil," or protesters' tactics as socially acceptable, while they're happening. The neatly packaged versions exist only in retrospect. nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/…
Take MLK. People like to remember him as a unifying figure who protested the "right" way. But he was arrested ~30 times, blackmailed by the federal government, beaten and assassinated, and died one of the most disliked people in America. nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/…
"There’s always going to be a group that attempts to demonize that which is being done,“ his son Martin Luther King III said. "Dad totally used the method of nonviolence, and he was consistently criticized." nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/…
Or take women's suffragists. Some of them circulated petitions and held town meetings. Others burned President Woodrow Wilson in effigy on the White House lawn. Guess which part history books tend to emphasize? nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/…
In researching this article, I found some truly amazing articles and quotes in the NYT archives. Here's how the NYT reported Elizabeth Cady Stanton's testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in 1860:
This is from February 1919, when the NWP (the more radical suffragist group) burned Wilson in effigy and NAWSA (the more moderate suffragist group) accused them of undermining the cause. timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1…
Old polling data is also revealing. In 1961, 57% of Americans thought sit-ins and the Freedom Rides hurt the cause of integration. In 1964, the year after the March on Washington, 74% percent said mass demonstrations hurt the cause. news.gallup.com/vault/246167/p…
If we look solely at effectiveness, putting moral/philosophical considerations aside, there is no neat, consistent pattern to which types of protest work and which don't. History just doesn't support those narratives. nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/…
Much more in the article, including insights from historians and political scientists who study what makes movements effective. nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/…
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Maggie Astor
@MaggieAstor
My husband and I are recovering from COVID-19.

We’re getting better. But it’s taken more than two weeks to say that, and that was with the “mild” version, meaning no trouble breathing. This virus is absolutely brutal. “Mild” is not mild by any normal definition. Thread: 1/x
I’ve never seen my husband so sick. I’ve never *been* so sick, and I didn’t have it nearly as bad as him. I sometimes minimized how bad it was when telling people, partly because I was scared, but also because the truth felt overdramatic. And I knew we were relatively lucky. 2/x
The good news is we weren’t hospitalized and we’re getting better. My husband’s fever seems to be breaking — it’s up and down, but trending in the right direction. I’m okay now except for fatigue. Writing this from bed, which is where I’ve been ~20 hours a day for two weeks. 3/x
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Maggie Astor
@MaggieAstor
In addition to the excellent coverage @AsteadWesley highlighted in his thread below, I'd like to highlight some pieces on how big a role gender and sexism played in this race.
Last February, as the campaign was just getting started, I wrote about the sexist tropes already coming into play. I wanted to lay out as clearly and specifically as possible how misogyny manifests on the trail. It's often subtle, but still so damaging. nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/…
At the December debate, the moderators told the candidates to give a "gift" or ask forgiveness. Only the women asked forgiveness — for coming on too strong or being too passionate. 1/2 nytimes.com/2019/12/20/us/…
Read 14 tweets
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Maggie Astor
@MaggieAstor
Big news for Native Americans in North Dakota: The state agreed to a settlement that ensures their right to vote even if they don't have an ID showing a residential address. nytimes.com/2020/02/13/us/…
This is a very big deal, and a long time coming. The Repub-controlled North Dakota Legislature first passed the voter ID law shortly after Heidi Heitkamp, a Dem, won a close Senate race in 2012 with strong support from Native Americans. Legal battles have continued ever since. 2/
I wrote about the law in 2018, when a court lifted an injunction and let it take effect less than 2 months before the midterms, sending North Dakota's tribes scrambling. The problem was — is — that many reservations don't use traditional addresses. 3/ nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/…
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