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How significantly did the Black Lives Matter movement impact social and
political fields in the United States for the past 10 years?

Research Proposal · March 2025

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Zhamilya Muldagaliyeva
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political fields in the United States for the past 10 years?

Zhamilya Muldagaliyeva

Word Count: 2644

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 Abstract
The history of the United States has always been affiliated with racial injustice

conflicts, including the largest Black Lives Matter protests, that had taken place after

George Floyd’s death caused by police brutality. This movement had particular

wide-reaching goals, which were connected with the governmental reforms and the

complete turn around of the people’s view on systematic oppression. The purpose of

this research paper was to identify the remarkable effects of the movement on the US

governmental system and analyse the importance of the BLM on the problem of racial

prejudice. This paper is developed based on the analysis of both qualitative and

quantitative data gathered from primary sociological research and meta-analyses of

other articles in this field. Results show that protests have influenced the legislation

reforms on the regulation of police officers’ work in a number of states. Additionally, BLM

activism affected the decrease of the usage of lethal force and has positively influenced

the Presidential elections outcome for the Democratic party. The movement had

succeeded in changing the public’s perception of racial inequality, despite some

individuals stating otherwise, pointing out the reverse effect. The mental health state of

the American population has gone through negative transformations, including mood

swings. In conclusion, Black Lives Matter movement has led to significant changes in

political and societal aspects of the United States.

2
 Table of content

Abstract​ 2
Introduction​ 3
Outline & References​ 4
I. Political Impact​ 4
Policy Reforms​ 4
Presidential Elections​ 5
II. Influence on the Public​ 6
Raising Awareness and Reshaping Attitudes​ 6
Scale of Impact (Counterargument)​ 7
III. Mental Health Impact​ 8
Effect on the Well-Being of American Nation​ 8
Effect on the Mental Health Disorders of Americans​ 9
Conclusion​ 10
References​ 11
Annotated Sources​ 13
Annotated Source One​ 13
Annotated Source Two​ 15

3
 Introduction
​ The racial discrimination issue in the US has had a significant place in the

history of the country. Lethal use of force against black civilians has emerged as one of

the central political issues (Reny and Newman, 2024). Public’s response to the police

brutality acts towards the black victims has caused the creation of the Black Lives

Matter movement. The death of George Floyd in the year of 2020 on May 25 has

kicked off a revival of the Black Power activism (Campbell, 2024). The term Black

Power comes from the revolution in the period of 1960s and 1970s, emphasising the

racial empowerment (National Archives, n.d.). This tragedy has sparked massive

protests in the country and renewed the public’s attention to the racism, demanding

major changes in the policy. The purpose of researching this subject is laid behind the

progression of the anti-racism activism and social movements against police brutality.

One of the ways of achieving this is through policy change, therefore it is crucial to

investigate whether the protests matter in terms of doing changes of these fundamental

dimensions. In academic terms, the understanding of the movement's influence on the

government and society will contribute to a number of different disciplines of social

sciences. This project paper consists of 3 sections. The first section will answer the

question of the protests’ impact on politics, particularly on the reforms, changes in

legislation, and presidential elections. Secondly, the next section will discuss the

movement’s influence on public opinion and the range of effectiveness. The last one

will assess the mental health of the people, who have been engaged with the

movement throughout the period. In this project, the positive consequences resulting

from the Black Lives Matter movement will be examined, with a focus on changes in

the political structure of the United States that have been achieved. Additionally, it will

be argued that movement significantly shaped new political perspectives and

perceptions of racial equality.

4
 Outline & References
I.​ Political Impact
Policy Reforms
The main purpose of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is to make a

positive change in the community, strengthen the rights of the black people, and foster

the anti-racism society. This is done by a matter of a fight against the primary concern

of police brutality. Therefore, the protests held the idea and the goal of reaching the

results in addressing the racial inequality, through policy reforms and reduction of

police budgets. According to Campbell (2024), BLM protests have significantly reduced

the number of lethal force by 13% from 2014 to 2019. The movement’s role in reduction

of usage of force is visible through police responding by acquiring the body-worn

cameras, increasing by 60% in the amount of police agencies following the trend.

Another data by Peay and McNair (2022) confirms that after the earliest stage of BLM

protests, the laws mandating the reporting of use-of-force incidents, as well as the

legislations that enhance the prosecutors’ investigations on these cases were enacted

by 14 states. Burke and Gutierrez (2022) have reported that Minneapolis has banned

the police’s usage of neck restraints and chokeholds, regarding the tragedy of George

Floyd’s murder. These evidences display that the state governments have been forced

under the pressure of protesters to make changes into the policies of police

departments. However, according to Ebbinghaus et al. (2024), the influence of BLM

protests was not as effective as it seemed to be, as they did not achieve the reduction

of municipal police budgets, which was a prime goal in policy demands. This counters

the argument on the success of the movement regarding the police fund reforms.

Despite the existence of this claim, it is evident that the changes into budget have been

done and proven by Venkataramanan (2020), reporting that Austin has cut down the

police budget by $150 million, followed by backlash from the public over the police

brutality. In general, it becomes transparent that the movement has indeed successfully

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influenced the government’s policy and made changes into the traditional way of police

regulations.

Presidential Elections
The Black Lives Matter protests took place at the same period, as the 2020

Presidential Elections of the United States. Therefore, the public and the votes for the

candidates were affected by the approach and attitude to the movement situation. It is

believed that the movement had influenced the outcome of the elections, increasing the

amount of voters for the Democratic party. According to Teeselink and Melios (2021), a

0.1% increase in a part of the population that protested was found to increase the votes

for the Democratic Party by 0.35% in the years between 2016 and 2020, which is a

significant factor, compared to the economic and demographic variables of the same

research. There is a connection between this evidence and the claim that the increase

in Democratic party votes was due to the progressive shift among the undecided voters

that were encouraged by the BLM movement. Moreover, another evidence suggests

that the positive perspective to the BLM movement is strongly connected with voting for

Democrats and negatively against Republicans. It is indicated that 18% of strong

Democrats, who felt warm to the BLM protests, were more likely to vote in the elections

(Drakulich et al., 2020). In addition, there is data on the 2012 Presidential elections,

regarding the first and foremost wave of BLM protests, where there is an interlinked

relationship with the 3% increase in the amount of the voters’ attendance (Peay and

McNair, 2022). This shows that no matter the period of the protests, there has always

been an association between the BLM protesters and political parties. In this case, it

becomes obvious that the liberal background of the movement is strongly connected to

the Democrats of the US population.

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 II. Influence on the Public
Raising Awareness and Reshaping Attitudes
The duty of the BLM protests was to raise awareness on the issue of racial

injustice and to better the attitude of people toward discriminated groups of people in

the US. Public’s perception of racial equality significantly matters in the society, as it is

a core for the cohesive and harmonious society. Moreover, high acknowledgement

levels of social injustice correlate to the changes in legislation and policies, which were

discussed above. There is a fair amount of evidence, confirming the movement's

influence on the public opinion, to the positive aspects. According to Teeselink and

Melios (2021) BLM protests have succeeded in their goal of changing the perception of

the public on the discrimination of black people, causing the increase in the number of

those who share a viewpoint of slavery being a core to the disadvantageous position of

the African Americans nowadays and a decrease in those who consider that African

Americans should advance without any favours. It was found by the same researcher,

that the influence of the BLM protests is higher in the regions where the percentage of

African Americans’ population was relatively smaller. This is simply explained by the

fact that the majority of affected people are Caucasian, who have less contact with the

representatives of black race, therefore the influence from the media and BLM protests

reshaped their attitude. Another study confirms this point, as it found that BLM

movement influences public opinion on racial prejudice among white people

(Mazumder, 2019 as cited in Boehmke et al., 2023). It becomes clear that from the

beginning, the protests are influencing the public opinion, as the awareness of the

racial discrimination policies among American white people has increased, to the point

that they believe in the need to ensure the equality of rights (Pew Research Center,

2014, 2015, 2017; as cited in Drakulich et al., 2020). The last evidence, strengthening

the claim is by Reny and Newman (2021), who have proven the significance of the

BLM movement on the public attitude, as it has increased the dislikeness of the police

by 27% and the acknowledgement of discrimination against black people by 16%. To

specify, it is crucial to point out the success of the Black Lives Matter protests in
7
achieving national and global recognition and acknowledgement by both the

government and the population of the United States.

Scale of Impact (Counterargument)

the influence on changing the public’s perception was limited in range and fails to

remain at the same levels over time, meaning that the efforts done by the protesters

have become meaningless. This is confirmed by the research done by Reny and

Newman (2021), who have shown that the attitude of the white people has reverted

toward the pre-protests levels over time, indicating the movement’s failure to

significantly affect the opinion of the higher in prejudice people. Additionally, BLM

protests do have an effect on the public opinion, however only at a narrow reach

(Boehmke et al., 2023). While it is true that the social perceptions among certain

groups have been reverted back to the pre-protests levels, it does not imply the

movement’s total failure. Although some individuals may have not been strongly

affected by the protests, the effect of the BLM extends way beyond public opinion, as it

has already done significant changes in the law of 14 states (Peay and McNair, 2022)

and the other reforms, mentioned above in the section of Political Impact. These

refinements are on the institutional level, and matter to the United States’ systematic

racism issue and the followers of the movement notably more than the temporary

reverse effect of particular people’s attitude. Another undeniable fact is that the

younger generations have shown support for the racial justice and greater awareness,

thus meaning that the long-lasting remarkable effects of the movement will be seen

over time in the future. Therefore, while the movement had limited effect on the highly

prejudiced people, the long-lasting influence on the reforms in legislation, elections,

and the mindsets of young people left a profound mark in the fight against systemic

racism.

8
 III. Mental Health Impact
Effect on the Well-Being of American Nation
BLM protests have continuously lasted for a significant months-long period of

time, and for the initial stages it had been extensively translated on all the social media,

news platforms, and television all around the world. Due to this process of direct live

events translation, the American nation has witnessed the movement’s progression on

its own. It can be observed that in the first week from June 1 to 7 2020, since the death

of George Floyd, US population’s indicators of anger and sadness have increased to

38.4% and 38.1%, which is the highest sharp increase found by US Gallup so far

(Eichstaedt et al., 2021). Connecting the fact that these protests are the largest that

have ever happened in the history of the country, this serves as a proof to the massive

effects it had on various spectrums of the US. Moreover, findings show that 47.7% of

black people have experienced anger and 47.3% felt sadness, which is an accordingly

2.1-fold and 1.67 increase in comparison to the 22.3% and 28.3% during the baseline

period. In the case of white people, the anger levels have increased from 22.2% to

33.5% and sadness from 27.9% to 35.7%, which is a significantly lower increase than

for Black Americans. This difference in the emotions among black and white races

continues in the younger representatives. According to Baskin-Sommers et al. (2021),

black youth, compared to the white, indicates higher levels of anger, fear and

inspiration at all of the aspects of engagement with BLM: social media and

demonstration attendance. Additionally, Marshall et al. (2022), states that high-level of

engagement with BLM on Social Media was related to worsened state of mood and

weaker functioning. This data shows that there is a difference in levels of engagement

and empathy among different races, which is quite simply explained by the fact that the

root of the movement comes from racial inequality and police violence, particularly

towards black individuals, therefore the numbers are higher among the representatives

of the following race.

9
 Effect on the Mental Health Disorders of Americans
In addition to the changes in the emotional state of the United States’

population, an impact of the BLM movement is observed via the fluctuations in mental

health disorders of American people, directly correlating to the psychological distress.

The protests, in particular, the extensive media coverage of the events, have negatively

influenced the mental stability of the Americans and have worsened the conditions of

those who were previously suffering already. According to Eichstaedt et al. (2021), the

research has identified that the news of George Floyd’s death have remarkably

increased the acute state of mental health disorders, such as anxiety or depression for

both the white and black people. The study by Baskin-Sommers et al. (2021), confirms

this point, by highlighting that major engagement with BLM movement was associated

with increased levels of anxiety, depression, schizotypy, and trauma-related symptoms.

Therefore, despite the effectiveness of the BLM activism on the advancing of the racial

prejudice awareness and acting upon the law refinements, its negative psychological

impact cannot be overlooked. Engagement on social media, and getting exposure to

the violence is indeed proven to be affiliated with lower levels of wellbeing.

10
 Conclusion
​ To reiterate my thesis position, it was argued in this paper that Black Lives

Matter movement has significantly affected the political and societal spheres of the

United States’ governmental system and American nation. This movement has

succeeded in achieving the changes in the legal systems, reduced the amount of lethal

force incidents by 13% from 2014-2019 (Campbell, 2024), influenced the presidential

elections’ outcome, and has reshaped the attitude of the people on the racial prejudice.

On the other hand, it was found that an engagement with the movement was negatively

affecting the mental health of Americans, harshening the existing disorder symptoms

and causing the rapid increases in the anger and sadness levels. It is recommended for

society and policymakers to unite in addressing the issues with mental health, by

providing free psychological help for the negatively affected groups and creating

communities for the oppressed individuals. Moreover, the long-lasting consequences of

the movement’s activity should be further researched and observed in the future. It is

very possible that the government of the United States will stay persistent in its racial

equality policy, however the future of the country remains undefined, with the change of

the governance and the presidency may negatively impact the ability of the executive to

protect the rights of minorities.

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 References
​ Baskin-Sommers, A., Simmons, C., Conley, M., Chang, S.-A., Estrada, S.,

Collins, M., Pelham, W., Beckford, E., Mitchell-Adams, H., Berrian, N., Tapert, S. F.,

Gee, D. G., & Casey, B. J. (2021). Adolescent civic engagement: Lessons from Black

Lives Matter. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(41).

[Link]

Boehmke, F. J., Avery, S. M., Good, M. S., Dainty, T. C., & Ko, H. (2023). Did

Black Lives Matter protests change public opinion? American Politics Research, 51(6),

683–700. [Link]

​ Burke, M., & Gutierrez, G. (2020). Minneapolis agrees to ban police chokeholds

following the death of George Floyd. NBC News.

[Link]

llowing-death-george-floyd-n1226026

​ Drakulich, K., Wozniak, K. H., Hagan, J., & Johnson, D. (2020). Race and

policing in the 2016 presidential election: Black Lives Matter, the police, and dog

whistle politics. Criminology, 58(3), 370–402. [Link]

​ Ebbinghaus, M., Bailey, N., & Rubel, J. (2024). The effect of the 2020 Black

Lives Matter protests on police budgets: How “defund the police” sparked political

backlash. Social Problems. [Link]

​ Eichstaedt, J. C., Sherman, G. T., Giorgi, S., & Guntuku, S. C. (2021). The

emotional and mental health impact of the murder of George Floyd on the US

population. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(39), e2109139118.

[Link]

Marshall, I. C., Hammer, L. A., Springfield, C. R., & Bonfils, K. A. (2022).

Activism in the digital age: The link between social media engagement with Black Lives

Matter-relevant content and mental health. Psychological Reports, 127(5), 2117–2630.

[Link]

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 Peay, P. C., & McNair, C. R. (2022). Concurrent pressures of mass protests: the

dual influences of #BlackLivesMatter on state-level policing reform adoption. Politics,

Groups, and Identities, 12(2), 277–301.

[Link]

Reny, T. T., & Newman, B. J. (2021). The opinion-mobilizing effect of social

protest against police violence: Evidence from the 2020 George Floyd protests.

American Political Science Review, 115(4), 1499–1507.

[Link]

​ Teeselink, B., & Melios, G. (2021). Weather to protest: The effect of Black Lives

Matter protests on the 2020 presidential election. SSRN.

[Link]

​ Venkataramanan, M. (2020). Austin City Council cuts the police department

budget by one-third, mainly through reorganising some duties out from law

enforcement oversight. The Texas Tribune.

[Link]

​ ​ ​ ​

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 Annotated Sources
Annotated Source One
Campbell, T. (2024). Black Lives Matter’s effect on police lethal use of force.

Journal of Urban Economics, 141, 103587. [Link]

This research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Journal of Urban

Economics in the year of 2024, which leads to this article being considered as current.

The author Travis Campbell is an Assistant Professor of Economics, with the focus on

social justice issues, at Southern Oregon University. He has also received his PhD in

Economics from the University of Massachusetts. The article has been cited 71 times,

reflecting on its significance and relevance to the subject of racial discrimination and

Black Lives Matter protests.

The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of the Black Lives Matter

movement on the police lethal use of force. The author points out in the thesis that it is

not the noise around the police scandals that are serving as a force for changes, but

rather the protests. The article provides a complementary analysis, using an approach

of the event study methodology. After the comparison of the first and second BLM

protests’ waves, the main findings show that the estimated influence of the movement

is a decrease in lethal force by approximately 13% over the time period of 5 years. In

other words, if the model is correct, the protests have affected the decline of police’s

victims by 200 people in the years between 2014 and 2019. Moreover, results suggest

that BLM protests have influenced the increase in body cameras’ usage by 60%,

therefore resulting in the 10% to 15% decrease in the use of lethal force by the police

officers. However, this also raises the question of whether the police departments

implement this new policy due to the intention of decreasing the police violence or to

reduce the accountability issue. Author has found out that the agencies with early

response to the protests have obtained the body cameras with a purpose of gaining the

community trust and reducing the use of force.

14
 This research plays a crucial role in my proposal, as it builds a foundation for

my evidence in Section 1 and proves the importance of the Black Lives Matter

movement in the policy change. The study findings show that the movement did in fact

impact the political field of the United States and therefore, I used them to support my

claim on reduction of police violence under the Policy Reforms subsection.

Annotated Source Two

policing in the 2016 presidential election: Black Lives Matter, the police, and dog

whistle politics. Criminology, 58(3), 370–402. [Link]

The article was published in the peer-reviewed journal Criminology in 2020,

which makes its currency valid for my project. The lead author Kevin Drakulich is a

Professor at Northeastern University in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice,

who earned his PhD at University of Washington. This paper was cited 157 times and

has positively contributed to the research of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The thesis of the study aims for the investigation of the BLM protests’ impact on

the United States’ Presidential Elections in the year of 2016. Author emphasises the

potential connection between support for BLM and voting behaviour for the Democratic

Party. The authors conducted a secondary research, using data from the 2016

American National Election Studies (ANES) survey, which included face-to-face

interviews and a questionnaire. The results of the study revealed that an increased

chance of voting for the Democrats had a connection with feeling warm towards the

BLM movement, whereas the opposite is for the individuals who express coldness

about the protests, having a high likelihood of voting for the Republicans. These

findings share similarities in the attitude towards the police: voters for the Democratic

15
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Party were more likely to feel cold about the police, meanwhile the Republican voters

were on the warmer side. Moreover, it was also found that the Democrats who had

shown support to the BLM were more likely to show up to the elections and vote. They

were also associated with a significantly lesser chance of voting for Donald Trump's

presidency. Lack of support for the police was associated with a negative vote turnout

for the Republican candidates.

This research serves a purpose of supporting the claim under the Presidential

Elections sunsection from the Section 1. Moreover, the secondary source from the

article is used in the Section 2 of the project and provides the evidence for the claim on

the existing influence on the public opinion. Other than that, the article contains an

informative reference list that was used as a direction for the further source search.

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