Hundreds of protesters take to the streets after weeks of demonstrations

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A crowd gathered for a Black Lives Matter protests at the Boone County Courthouse Sunday around 3 p.m.

Organizers, poets and singers led a conversation for the crowd of around 150 people around 3:15 p.m. in the yard of the courthouse.

According to the event's Facebook page, protesters are continuing to march for several things.

"We still need arrests for Breonna Taylor's murderers. We still need to demand the convictions of the officers of George Floyd," the post said in part.

One of the organizers Christopher Watkins Jr. said he was please about the turnout, and said they won't stop protesting.

"We don't have a deadline," Watkins said. "We continue to protest, go to city hall meetings, go to school board meetings, whatever we have to do to get change in our community."

The Columbia Police Department blocked several roads around 3:30 on Sunday as protesters marched down major streets like Broadway, Providence Road and College Avenue.

"CPD has actually been very helpful, we have conversations with certain individuals and they told us today they support what we are doing," Watkins said. "They are all about the movement, they want change as well."

Sunday's crowd was the largest that gathered for a protest in several weeks in Columbia, yet smaller groups continue to gather daily in Columbia.

A leader and participant in many of those protests Kirubel Mesfin said Sunday was his 30th day of protesting for this movement.

He explained the larger protests like Sunday's are more to educate people about what the group is protesting for.

"We educate each other, we get educated from the audiences, these bigger days turn into learning experiences and smaller days are more personal like Columbia, what are we going to do," Mesfin said.

He also said CPD protects the group when there is a large crowd, which he said was a plus.

We're seeing a little more transparency from the people we have been talking to," Mesfin said.