Protesters in Chicago used the Black Friday shopping holiday to bring attention to the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri.
About 100 people gathered at the Water Tower on Michigan Avenue to express their frustration over a grand jury's decision not to indict the officer who fatally shot Brown in August.
"We chose here so that we could be out here for four-and-a-half hours, which is the amount of time Michael Brown's body was left in the street," Kristina Colon said.
While they stayed out of stores, protesters urged passersby to boycott shopping and used social media with the hashtags #blackoutfriday and #boycottblackfriday to get the word out, saying capitalism is tied to Brown's case.
"I think it's definitely connecting capitalism with racism and saying, look, these are the real issues right now, so getting the best sales is just silly when people's lives are being wrecked every single day," Heather Loring-Albright said.
The protesters then headed to Wicker Park and planned to walk to Walmart on North Avenue for an anti-Black Friday protest.
On Thanksgiving, protesters marched at a St. Louis-area Target, calling on shoppers to boycott shopping as police stood watch. Protesters remained relatively peaceful.
In a separate march, protesters held a demonstration at a Chicago Walmart, demanding the company pay employees $15 an hour.
