On Monday afternoon, at the exact time of day that unarmed Missouri teen Michael Brown was shot by St. Louis police officer Darren Wilson, thousands of people in over 30 cities nationwide are expected to walk out of their classrooms and off their jobs in a mass demonstration to say: “This is not over.”
Under the name #HandsUpWalkOut, the actions are set to begin at 1:01 PM EST. The demonstration is a national response to last week’s non-indictment of Wilson, as well as the recent killings of Akai Gurley in New York and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, according to local organizers Ferguson Action.
Following the November 24 grand jury announcement, grassroots groups expressing both solidarity with those recent victims of racial violence and condemnation of the lack of justice have staged marches, blockades, as well as protests during annual shopping bonanza Black Friday.
“The message is clear: No more business as usual,” said Ferguson Action on their site. “We can no longer do what we have always done and cooperate with a system that does not respect Black Lives. We will only get the change we want if we disrupt the daily order and insists that Black Lives Matter. If that means shutting down the entire country, that’s what we’ll do.”
Images of the demonstrations are being shared online under the hashtag #HandsUpWalkOut. For a list of solidarity actions nationwide you can go here.
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