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Students, Workers Lead Nationwide 'Hands Up' Walkouts

Washington University, Amherst College, Emory University, Stanford University and Yale University are just a few of the schools where students protested the grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

(Students at Washington University protest to draw attention to police abuse on December 1, 2014, in St. Louis, Missouri. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Thousands of protesters across the U.S. participated in “Hands Up, Walk Out” demonstrations on Monday to condemn a grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson over the fatal shooting of the unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown, AlJazeera America reports.

As a show of solidarity, students and professionals left their classes and jobs to protest at 12:01 CST, the time of Brown’s death on Aug. 9.

Rallies and marches took place in more than 30 cities, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

According to AlJazeera America, workers from the National Domestic Workers Alliance of Atlanta and post office workers in Beacon, New York, are just a few of the professionals who participated in the action. Students at Washington University, Amherst College, Emory University, Stanford University, Yale University and many other U.S. schools also held walkouts.

Monday’s demonstrations mark several days of protests over the Wilson verdict, police brutality and the criminal justice system's treatment of Blacks and other people of color. During the Black Friday shopping weekend this year, demonstrators held nationwide shopping strikes and other forms of protest.

“From the #ShutItDown actions that have blocked major highways and intersections to the #BlackOutBlackFriday protests, the message is clear: No more business as usual,” Ferguson Action, an organization created to demand justice for Brown and his family, wrote on its website.

“We can no longer do what we have always done and cooperate with a system that does not respect black lives,” the organization wrote. “We will only get the change we want if we disrupt the daily order and insist that black lives matter. If that means shutting down the entire country, that’s what we’ll do.”

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