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Story highlights
Protests are largely peaceful, but Oakland, California, vandals broke windows, looted stores
Part of the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles was shut down in both directions
New York protester: "Now we're going to make sure things are going to change"
Boston's mayor estimates 1,000 people took to the streets Tuesday night
From New York to Los Angeles and dozens of cities in between, protesters flooded the streets to denounce a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson.
A day after the country learned that Wilson wouldn’t face criminal charges for killing unarmed teenager Michael Brown, at least 130 protests sprouted up across the U.S.
Some demonstrations blocked bridges, tunnels and major highways. But unlike the violence that erupted in Ferguson on Monday night, the Tuesday night protests were largely peaceful.
Atlanta
The Public Enemy anthem pumping from mounted speakers at a protest in downtown Atlanta captured the mood of the crowd Tuesday night.
“Fight the power,” Chuck D and Flavor Flav shouted over the speaker. “Fight the powers that be. …”
About 300 people tried to follow the duo’s advice. As helicopters circled above, black college students, white urban hipsters in skinny jeans, middle-aged socialists and black militants in berets gathered for a raucous rally to vent their anger.
“They have given us no justice! We will give them no peace,” the demonstrators chanted at they amassed in front of the Underground Atlanta shopping district.
Protesters also gathered outside CNN Center. Some held signs that read “Enough” and “We are all one bullet away from being a hashtag.”
One demonstrator wore a T-shirt that read, “Racism isn’t over but I’m over racism.”
“It’s a travesty; it’s just not right,” ShaCzar Brown said, holding up a sign that said, “Stop killer cops.”
Atlanta, birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., also saw emotional reaction Monday night when about 200 students gathered at Morehouse College to hear the grand jury’s decision. A collective gasp rippled through the crowd when it came.
Read what Darren Wilson told the grand jury
Some of the students at the historically black men’s school looked at one another in disbelief, others started to tear up and a few stared ahead as their jaws dropped.
Police sirens wailed in the distance as the students chanted: “Ferguson’s hell is America’s hell.”
Protests have been organized in more than 30 states, the District of Columbia and at least three other countries, according to information compiled by CNN and a site set up to help organize protest efforts.
Oakland, California
Perhaps the greatest concentration of turmoil Tuesday night was in Oakland, where vandals smashed the windows of a car dealership and looted several businesses, including a T-Mobile cell phone store.
Some also set several bonfires in the city. One row of bonfires stretched across a road, blocking off access, footage from CNN affiliate KPIX showed.
Some people were seen adding more items to the fires.
New York
A massive protest wound its way from Union Square to FDR Drive and to the United Nations, Times Square and Harlem.
“Now it’s not clear where we’re going,” said CNN’s Miguel Marquez, who was interviewing protesters as they continued marching after midnight.
One demonstrator said he didn’t even know about the protest until he saw it pass by his workplace on Times Square. He decided to join in.
“I just want to help bring about change. … Sometimes I am profiled based on my race,” said the protester, who is black. “I think this is progress. … Now we’re going to make sure things are going to change.”
‘A thousand Fergusons across America’
As they marched, some protesters chanted, “Mike Brown! Mike Brown!”
Police, who were nearby in large numbers, stayed back and let the marchers go.
Protesters also briefly blocked one of the entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel on Tuesday evening, but then headed off to the city’s West Side.
Los Angeles
A stretch of the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles was shut down in both directions after protesters took roadblocks from the streets, along with debris, and placed them on the freeway, police said.
And demonstrators gathered outside the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters, Officer Sara Faden said. She said the protesters demonstrated peacefully.
An LAPD spokesman said officers are allowing people to vent.
“We have detained people. We don’t have any property damage to speak of,” Officer Jack Richter said. “We are letting (the people) exercise their constitutional rights.”
Boston
Mayor Marty Walsh estimated about 1,000 protesters took to the streets Tuesday night.
The gathering was largely peaceful.
“It’s a beautiful thing to see,” demonstrator Daniel Jose Older said.
Complete coverage of what’s happening in Ferguson
Denver
Several hundred people took to the streets of Denver on Tuesday night, police said.
Officers tried to prevent demonstrators from marching onto Interstate 25. Most protesters dispersed peacefully, but a “small group” refused and grabbed officers.
Officers used pepper spray, and three people were arrested, police said.
Dallas
About five protesters were arrested after marching on Interstate 35, CNN affiliate WFAA said.
About 200 demonstrators gathered at Dallas police headquarters before marching onto the interstate, the affiliate said.
Washington
In Washington, protesters lay down on a sidewalk outside police headquarters as if dead, according to a tweet by Nikki Burdine of CNN affiliate WUSA.
Some had handwritten notes on their chests: “Black lives matter.”
Minneapolis
A woman in a group blocking an intersection was run over by a car in Minneapolis.
The Star Tribune newspaper reported that the driver of the car honked at protesters before knocking a few people onto the hood of the vehicle and apparently running over the woman’s legs. She was hospitalized with “very minor injuries.”
Chicago
About 200 members of the Black Youth Project staged a sit-in outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office Tuesday afternoon. They planned to be there for 28 hours.
The time period symbolizes the average time that passes in America before another young black man is shot by a police officer, security guard or “self-appointed vigilante,” project member Charlene Carruthers told the Chicago Tribune.
“I think what happened yesterday is a great injustice to everyone that’s been fighting for equality in this country,” one Chicago protester told WGN on Tuesday. “And I think that just because a bad decision was made doesn’t mean people who believe in equality are going to fall silent.”
CNN’s Jessica Ravitz, John Blake, Lorenza Brascia, Greg Morrison, Rob Frehse, Tina Burnside and Bill Kirkos contributed to this report.
