Dear Josephus,

As I said earlier in this discussion - the
Brookings Institution in the US tells us that protesting
is as important as voting. Police actions against black
Americans resulted in "defund the police" as a rallying
cry demanding systemic reform.

And, these demands have generated substantive policy
changes. Both Democrats and Republicans have offered
federal legislation on police reform and across the
nation local municipal leaders are cutting bloated
police budgets.

And much much more. Including Minneapolis reforming
its police force.

HI FOXY,

Four names from history; Emmeline Pankhurst, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela, and people say protests don't work. Those that oppose change will ridicule protest, not because they believe it to be a waste of time, but because they fear the change that protest can bring.

Dear Paul,

As we know - not all protests work immediately.
Nor do all protests work - especially if they
are violent or if they are only a "one of"
event. For change to happen - keeping
at it is required, and not giving up.

We've had so many that have succeeded in this country

One historical event
that comes to mind is the Wave Hill Walk Off in 1966
when 200 Gurindji stockmen and their families made
national headlines walking off the Wave Hill station in
the Northern Territory demanding better conditions.

It took almost a decade for them to achieve anything but
in 1976 then PM Gough Whitlam gave them 3000 sq k's of
land.

I've found a couple of links that may be of
interest:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/2020-not-1968
To understand today's protests you must look further back.

http://www.bbc.com.uk/teach/the-people-are-revolting-the-history-of-protest/zdpdgwx

http://www.history.com/tag/protests

Sorry for the typo. Here's the second link again:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/the-people-are-revolting-the-history-of-protest/zdpdgwx

Yes it is, if it was ineffective, they wouldn't do it.