Whether they helped bring down Jose Mourinho, marched against their club’s owner or pushed back against plans to commercialize the game, fans have a long history of using their passion for football as a weapon against injustice. These fan protest stories remind us that, far from being a fad, fan activism isn’t going away anytime soon.

Black fans used their fandom as a nonviolent weapon during the Civil Rights Movement, leveraging sports to protest segregated seating and discrimination at local stadiums. They plastered their communities with banners and supported boycotts through their local media, including Black sportswriters such as Jim Hall who kept fans up to date on the latest protests. These efforts changed the makeup of professional sports in many major southern cities that wanted to attract sports teams as a strategy to appear modern, yet still struggled with racism.

A few hundred Dallas Mavericks fans demonstrated outside the American Airlines Center Saturday to protest the team’s trade of Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. The protesters wore Doncic jerseys and waved signs calling for general manager Nico Harrison to be fired.

When planning a protest, organizers must determine what their goals are and how to achieve them. They also have to decide how to structure their group – and if they want to designate an effective leader or opt for a more open, nonhierarchical organization. In addition, activists must consider the needs of those who can’t participate fully because they have work or family obligations.