"Intense" one participant described the evening. An angry young man jumped in front of television cameras trying to interrupt a reporter's interview. Barely school-aged children carried signs hand painted with the words, "Black lives matter." "Shut it down for Michael Brown"and "Don't shoot, I don't have a gun" chants rang out through the crowd.
Those were just some of the sentiments and scenes as hundreds of Houstonians of all ages and races took to the street just before rush hour in a day-after demonstration against the Ferguson decision.
The nonviolent protest, following ones in cities across the United States, followed a Missouri grand jury's decision not to indict Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager the white police officer fatally shot in an emotionally charged case that speaks to race and justice (or injustice) in America.
Citizens are venting their outrage and disbelief with the court's decision to not indict Wilson for the killing.
The local march began in MacGregor Park on Tuesday evening, with participants joining in along the way as the growing group walked miles through the Third Ward. The increasing numbers blocked 6 p.m. traffic at the corner of Old Spanish Trail and Martin Luther King and then headed to the University of Houston for an hours-long trek that eventually led past Texas Southern University and even across U.S. 288.
No arrests related to the Houston march have been reported at the time of this posting.
Other similar protests occurred in Oakland to Seattle to New York to Chicago, to name just a few major cities where citizens are venting their outrage and disbelief with the court's decision to not indict Wilson for the killing.
Another rally was planned outside the Greater Houston Partnership's offices on Wednesday afternoon. It was scheduled to last for four and one-half hours — representing the time Brown's body laid in the street after the shooting.
Click through the slideshow above for the most dramatic images from Houston's protest march.
Photo by Grace White and Doug Miller of KHOU.
March is nominated for its beverage program.
Photo by Julie Soefer