The most famous family associated with the Renaissance is the Italian Medici family, which was based out of Florence.
The Medicis became important patrons of the arts and were very politically active.
It was "Francois Rabelais" who wrote the humorous novel Pantagruel, published in 1532, which poked fun at the established order, since this was during a time when many voices of "protest" made their way through literary works such as this.
The Watts Riot and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.