[3] Grassroots movements utilize a variety of strategies from fundraising and registering voters, to simply encouraging political conversation.
A particular instantiation of grassroots politics in the American Civil Rights Movement was the 1951 case of William Van Til working on the integration of the Nashville Public Schools.
Van Til worked to create a grassroots movement focused on discussing race relations at the local level.
In response to his attempts to network with leadership in the black community, residents of Nashville responded with violence and scare tactics.
However, Van Til was still able to bring blacks and whites together to discuss the potential for changing race relations, and he was ultimately instrumental in integrating the Peabody College of Education in Nashville.
It encouraged grassroots elections in villages all around China with the express purpose of bringing democracy to the local level of government.
For example, in North Carolina, African American communities lay down in front of dump trucks to protest their environmental impact.
Influencers on apps like Instagram and Twitter have all become hot spots for growing grassroots movements as platforms to inform, excite and organize.
Some hashtags that stirred up larger media coverage include the #MeToo movement, started in 2017 in response to sexual assault allegations against prominent figures in the American entertainment industry.
Some examples include: The junior senator from Arizona and standard-bearer of conservative Republicans, Barry Goldwater announced his candidacy on January 3, 1964.
The junior United States senator and former Representative from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, formally announced his 2016 presidential campaign on May 26, 2015, on the foundation of reversing "obscene levels" of income and wealth inequality.
[17][18] Sanders stated that he would run an issue-oriented and positive campaign, focusing his efforts on getting corporate money out of politics, raising taxes on the wealthy, guaranteeing tuition-free higher education, incorporating a single-payer healthcare system, fighting against climate change and other key issues.
[19][20] Those inspired by Sanders were able to elevate the campaign to challenge the Democratic front-runner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, before ultimately losing.
[23] Affected by images of the plight of refugees arriving and travelling across Europe, the grassroots aid movement (otherwise known as the people-to-people or people solidarity movement), consisting of thousands of private individuals with no prior NGO experience, began in earnest to self-organise and form groups taking aid to areas of displaced persons.
[24] The first wave of early responders reached camps in Calais and Dunkirk in August 2015[25] and joined forces with existing local charities supporting the inhabitants there.
[26] Grassroots aid filled voids and saved lives by plugging gaps in the system between governments and existing charities.
[28] Its intended purpose is to promote social justice by connecting musicians and music enthusiasts to progressive grassroots ideals.
[31] Astroturfing refers to political action that is meant to appear to be grassroots, that is spontaneous and local, but in fact comes from an outside organization, such as a corporation or think tank.
For example, Australia's Convoy of No Confidence, a movement seeking to force an early election in 2011, incorporated elements of grassroots infrastructure in its reliance on the anger and discontentment of the participants.
Critics, notably including Former President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, dismissed the Tea Party as Astroturf.
They say that the movement purports to represent large swaths of America when in reality it comes from a select few billionaires seeking policies favorable to themselves.
Defenders of the Tea Party cite polls that find substantial support, indicating that the movement has some basis in grassroots politics.
Critics point to the corporate influence on the Tea Party, which they believe indicates that the movement is more top-down than the grassroots rhetoric would suggest.
[36] The term "grassroots" is used by a number of sporting organizational bodies to reference the lowest, most elementary form of the game that anyone can play.