--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: 'It's the Work of Generations.' How Years of Black Organizing and Demonstrations Laid the Groundwork for Recent Protests image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79cd472ade44a2f6/6998ce251f6709f0d1f57393/poster_229b34.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jun 05, 2020 # 'It's the Work of Generations.' How Years of Black Organizing and Demonstrations Laid the Groundwork for Recent Protests by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372082/it-s-the-work-of-generations-how-years-of-black-organizing-and-demonstrations-laid-the-groundwork-for-recent-protests/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372082/it-s-the-work-of-generations-how-years-of-black-organizing-and-demonstrations-laid-the-groundwork-for-recent-protests/"},"headline":"'It's the Work of Generations.' How Years of Black Organizing and Demonstrations Laid the Groundwork for Recent Protests","datePublished":"2020-06-05T03:43:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:39:31.592Z","description":"The scale of the police brutality protests seen over the past week have been years in the making—not only because of the continued violence against black people at the hands of police officers, but also because of the work of activists and organizers","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372082/it-s-the-work-of-generations-how-years-of-black-organizing-and-demonstrations-laid-the-groundwork-for-recent-protests/","keywords":["society","Psychology","Crime","politics","Race","Media","activism","U.S.","Law","Equality","TIME100 Talks","Include"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79cd472ade44a2f6/6998ce251f6709f0d1f57393/poster_229b34.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79cd472ade44a2f6/6998ce251f6709f0d1f57393/poster_229b34.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372082/it-s-the-work-of-generations-how-years-of-black-organizing-and-demonstrations-laid-the-groundwork-for-recent-protests/","name":"'It's the Work of Generations.' How Years of Black Organizing and Demonstrations Laid the Groundwork for Recent Protests"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'It's the Work of Generations.' How Years of Black Organizing and Demonstrations Laid the Groundwork for Recent Protests","description":"The scale of the police brutality protests seen over the past week have been years in the making—not only because of the continued violence against black people at the hands of police officers, but also because of the work of activists and organizers","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TFLlowZm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2020-06-04T23:43:29.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TFLlowZm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372082/it-s-the-work-of-generations-how-years-of-black-organizing-and-demonstrations-laid-the-groundwork-for-recent-protests/","duration":"PT3M44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372082/it-s-the-work-of-generations-how-years-of-black-organizing-and-demonstrations-laid-the-groundwork-for-recent-protests/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```