Rodney King to Tyre Nichols: A Timeline of U.S. Police Protests

The killing of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old-Black man who was fatally beaten by five police officers during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, is once again bringing to light a longstanding pattern of police brutality toward African Americans and sparking demonstrations across the US.

The following is a timeline of major protests in response to police violence, especially instances where officers remained in their jobs or weren’t held accountable for violent or fatal arrests. These demonstrations are part of a broader movement against systemic racism in America, and don’t include the killings of people such as Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin by fellow civilians. Arbery was chased and shot in February by an armed white resident in Atlanta, and Martin was shot by neighborhood watcher George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida back in 2012.