By Ellen O’Leary
Boston.com Staff
October 25, 2014 3:55 PM
Hundreds of people marched down Boston’s iconic Newbury Street on Saturday to highlight a fact: Black Lives Matter. That’s both the mantra and name of a national movement with a Boston chapter that launched “Newbury Street Shutdown,” a protest that (briefly) lived up to its name.
Social media photos showed protesters gathered in the street around 1:20 p.m. Participants stood in the middle of the insersection for a few minutes, according to Universal Hub, before proceeding along Newbury Street toward the Christian Science Center.
Nearly 1,000 people indicated they’d attend the Facebook event, called “Newbury Street Shutdown.” Those who showed up aimed to, as the Facebook page put it, “disrupt ‘business as usual’ in a major center of commerce—Newbury Street.” Mallory Hanora, Elijah C, and Daunasia Yancey were listed as hosts but could not be reached for comment.
“There were about 150 people. They stayed on the sidewalk the whole time” said Nina Coakley, media relations for the Boston Police Department.
Still, with tweets like “The Boston chapter of #BlackLivesMatter has shut down Newbury Street, one of the centers of commerce for the city. Amazing” (@RevrendDoctor) and various Tweets and Vines, it seems the protesters achieved their event’s goal for at least a few minutes.
According to their Tumblr, Black Lives Matter Boston “remains committed to being active in the movement against racist policing and police violence both locally and nationally.” The first post to the site was on September 15, 2014, just one month after the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The national organization stretches back to July 2013, according to their Facebook page.
Boston was not the only city that saw protests today. Marchers blocked an Atlanta highway, according to The Root.
The protests are being posted to social media with the tags #FergusonOctober and #BlackLivesMatter.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/10/25/black-lives-matter-say-the-protesters-who-shut-down-newbury-street/TM2qyTF1xzpemzZD7zm3QO/story.html
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