State Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. speaks on the Missouri House floor on May 24, 2017 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at Missouri House Communications}
Protesters walked through the St. Louis Galleria mall this afternoon in Richmond Heights chanting “Shut it down!” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the demonstration prompted some stores to close their doors and pull down their security gates with customers inside.
Seven people, including Democratic State Rep. Bruce Franks, Jr., were arrested during the Black Friday protest. In early November, African-American clergy and activists announced the demonstration would be an economic boycott about racial issues involving police treatment, bank loan practices and infrastructure neglect in north St. Louis.
The protest shut down mall business for about 40 minutes.
Franks has been an active fixture in Ferguson protests after the death of Michael Brown, Jr. and after a former St. Louis police officer was exonerated in September of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a black drug suspect.
