Some of the Eastern European anti-Soviet revolutions probably qualify. I suppose it depends on whether the U.S.S.R. "wanted" to crush the protests violently but couldn't. It certainly did conduct violent reprisals in several cases.

Civil rights in the US has been, I agree, sanitized. No, civil rights didn't progress solely because the majority in power was touched that minorities demanded their rights so peacefully and insistently. There was a violent side too, that provided necessary pressure.

> Name some times protests worked

We're three days out from 2025 and Nepal and Madagascar have already been forgotten?

Like, there is criticism of the 3.5% rule [1] for being too narrowly based. But the hot take that protest never works is genuinely one I haven't seen yet.

Are you confusing protest and terrorism?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.5%25_rule