New York City’s activist roots date back to that same old New World narrative. Dutch settlers of what was then called New Amsterdam opposed the governor’s wish to limit religious freedom, and thus petitioned the Dutch East India Company for the right. That was in 1657. Throw in a series of 1960s race riots, Ground Zero mosque protests, and the technology era’s own Occupy Wall Street, and it’s obvious that the medium and subject of activism have evolved over time.
