This has a fair number of notes, so maybe itâs already been mentioned but âŠ
The âSunday Bestâ thing from the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s & 60s, or wearing markers of an assigned profession (e.g. scrubs) is an established tactic of social movements.  Theyâre part of what Charles Tilly (one of the academic god fatherâs of social movement theory) called âWUNCâ displays.  WUNC can be broken down to:
worthiness: sober demeanor (!!!); neat clothing (!!!); presence of clergy, dignitaries, and mothers with children;
unity: matching badges, headbands, banners, or costumes (!!!); arching in ranks; singing and chanting;
numbers: headcounts, signatures on petitions, messages from constituents, filling streets;
commitment: braving bad weather; visible participation by the old and handicapped (!!!); resistance to repression; ostentatious sacrifice (!!!), subscription, and/or benefaction. (Tilly, 2004, pg. 4 - tumblr-style emphasis my own)
While Iâm very much in support of anti-fascist protesting in whatever form it takes, especially when engaged in a counter-protest, one of the great tragedies of the American political climate right now is that weâve really forgotten some of the biggest lessons of the Civil Rights Era.  King didnât trot out fresh-faced students, church women in big fancy hats, or the elderly and disabled without knowing what he was doing.  He (and the other members of his affiliated organizations) knew that if the police were photographed using violent repression against a mother holding her child, or a student in slacks, a cardigan, and Buddy Holly glasses, it would go over very differently than if they were photographed beating up âunruly thugsâ.  Their presence alone would be notable to people locally, especially in the heat of the south.  But so would photographs of repressive violence against ânice peopleâ that would then get picked up by the national media, and maybe in markets that were more sensitive to racial oppression. Â
[And like, there are other factors as well.  People also sometimes think the Civil Rights Era erupted spontaneously from Jim Crowe and segregation in the South, and those are giant factors (âdepravationâ and âgrievanceâ, in jargon), but there were also legislative things and court rulings brewing since the 1920s (the NAACP had been trying Civil Rights cases, and looking for test cases over the years), and the Cold War meant that America needed to appear to be the perfect image of opportunity and equality (together these things manifest as an âopportunity structureâ.  again, jargon).  Not to get to down on protest as its own thing, but the structuralists do have a bit of a point.]
⊠ There are other types of anti-fascist counter-protesting that have developed in various ways through the years. And like, a big thing in social movement theory overall is that while there are common tactics (âprotest repertoiresâ in jargon), historical contexts matter a lot and some groups will have to do more dramatic performances of the WUNC to get attention.  Thereâs also the move revolutionary antifa-type riot mentality.  Iâm not gonna call that one wrong either, mind, but since the Civil Rights Movement was brought up, it should be noted that those two forms of protest differed intentionally.
Anyway, as someone turning in a dissertation on this in a couple of days, hereâs some drive-by political-sociology. Â If you want to learn more about the research behind processes of social movements, where they succeeded, and where they failed, I totally recommend checking out:
Charles Tilly (2004) Social Movements 1768-2008,Â
Sidney Tarrow (2011) Strangers at the Gates: Movements and States in Contentious Politics,Â
Sidney Tarrow (1998) Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics,Â
Frances Fox Piven & Richard A. Cloward (1988) Poor Peopleâs Movements: Why They Succeed and How They Fail, (this is on the Civil Rights Era protests and the somewhat fraught legislative follow-up exactly)
McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly (2001) The Dynamics of Contention
(McAdam has a quite well-regarded book on the Civil Rights Era specifically. I havenât read it personally as it relates less to my regional context. However like, thatâs worth noting and looking into. Â Also all of these are stodgey academic texts, but theyâre not uncommon in university libraries, or even in some bookstores. Theyâre also all a bit old now and shouldnât cost you a ton online.)
As a note â My point here isnât to descend from the Ivory Tower of Academia and say âyou people on the streets are doing this wrong!!1!â.  Theory doesnât always match up with Practice, and as noted by pretty much every notable theorist anyway⊠Context matters a TON.  Not all movements will be able to use the same practices or performances.  Sometimes their inaccessible, sometimes they just donât have the cross-context appeal.  Itâs about experimentation and finding opportunity.  To be clear, this isnât about me telling folks how it should be done.  Still, I think itâs worth sharing information when itâs available, especially if people who might not know are trying to draw specific links to historical cases.  Social movement theorists have pretty much all agreed that WUNC displays (along with other factors like media diffusion) are super duper important and can be recognized in movements across historical contexts.  I think itâs worth it for younger activists who might be looking for protest repertoires that work for their movement as itâs developing to take heed of the successes and failures of the past.  Especially since a lot of it is either a) so much a part of history and culture that it doesnât really get examined for its constituent bits, or b) has been mythologized to the point that itâs hard to look for really good popular historical information on its technical processes.
(If people have questions, feel free to DM me. Â I might be a little slow the next couple of days as I finish up proof-reading and checking all my citations but yeah. Â Letâs share knowledge and smash the fash.)
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