The Rev. Markel Hutchins and other local civil rights activists gathered near The King Center Tuesday to announce a boycott of this week’s Black Friday holiday sales and next week’s Cyber Monday online shopping campaigns.
The boycott is apparently part of a wider "No Justice, No Profit" boycott being organized by the Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition and religious leaders in Missouri. A grand jury in that state decided Monday not to indict the white police officer who fatally shot Brown, the unarmed black teenager whose death in August prompted nationwide protests.
The Missouri coalition, which is asking that people show their support for Brown by not shopping this weekend, plans to walk through shopping malls in silent protest and prayer without spending any money, KTVI-TV in St. Louis reported.
“We know that Black Friday can be the margin of difference of profit for many of these corporations,” the Rev. Timothy McDonald said at the Atlanta gathering. “We do not want them to profit on the back of Michael Brown, and all of the Michael Browns who came before him, and all of the other Michael Browns who will come after him.”
McDonald, founder of the African-American Leadership Council, urged churches, civil rights organizations, youth organizations, senior citizen organizations, fraternities and sororities across the country to join in the boycott.
“If you have a conscience in America, and if you’re tired of just Americans being shot down in the street, if you’re tired of this militarization that is occurring among our police force, then you need to spend no money this coming Friday, and don’t go on the internet on Cyber Monday,” he said. “Let’s send a message loud and clear that we are tired of this violence, we are tired of the blood of our children running in our streets.”
— Photographer David Tulis contributed to this report.
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