Sources
Each of the 40 historic movements on the home page was fact-checked. These are the sources for their figures and results. Links go to original records: the laws themselves, national archives and museums, or the organization’s own history. Checked October 2026.
The sugar boycott
1791–1807: British abolitionists, led by women who stopped buying slave-grown sugar
Women’s suffrage
1848–1920: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns and suffrage associations nationwide
The Statue of Liberty pedestal
1885–1886: Joseph Pulitzer and readers of the New York World
The eight-hour day
1886–1938: labor unions across the country
Votes for women in New Zealand
1887–1893: Kate Sheppard and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
After the Triangle fire
1911–1914: garment workers’ unions, Rose Schneiderman and Frances Perkins
The Salt March
1930–1931: Mohandas Gandhi and 78 marchers
March of Dimes
1938–1955: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
Montgomery Bus Boycott
1955–1956: the Montgomery Improvement Association
The Greensboro sit-ins
1960: four students from North Carolina A&T
The Freedom Rides
1961: CORE and young Black and white riders
The March on Washington
1963–1964: A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin
Selma to Montgomery
1965: voting-rights organizers
The Delano grape boycott
1965–1970: Filipino and Mexican farmworkers, with Larry Itliong, César Chávez and Dolores Huerta
Keep dams out of the Grand Canyon
1966–1968: the Sierra Club and David Brower
The first Earth Day
1970: Senator Gaylord Nelson and student organizers
Oregon’s bottle bill
1971: Richard Chambers and Oregon volunteers
The Chipko movement
1973–1980: Gaura Devi and village women of the Himalayas
The 504 sit-in
1977: Judy Heumann, Kitty Cone and disability activists
The Green Belt Movement
1977–2004: Wangari Maathai and Kenyan women’s groups
The Nestlé boycott
1977–1984: the Infant Formula Action Coalition
Love Canal
1978–1980: Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal Homeowners Association
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
1980–1984: Candy Lightner and California mothers
Solidarity
1980–1989: Polish shipyard workers, with Anna Walentynowicz and Lech Wałęsa
Live Aid
1984–1985: Bob Geldof, Midge Ure and musicians
Ending polio worldwide
1985–today: Rotary members and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative
Campus divestment from apartheid
1986–1988: students at American universities
Smoke-free skies
1986–1990: Patty Young and flight attendants
ACT UP
1987–1992: the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
Dolphin-safe tuna
1988–1990: Earth Island Institute and Samuel LaBudde
The Baltic Way
1989: independence movements in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
The Velvet Revolution
1989: students, theater workers and Civic Forum
The Capitol Crawl
1990: ADAPT
Jubilee 2000
1996–2000: churches and campaigners in 166 countries
The High Line
1999–2009: Joshua David, Robert Hammond and their neighbors
Tobacco 21
2005–2019: Needham health officials and public-health advocates
The Fight for $15
2012–2016: fast-food workers in New York City
The Ice Bucket Challenge
2014: ALS families and the ALS Association
Juneteenth
2016–2021: Opal Lee
Save Our Stages
2020: the National Independent Venue Association