Ferguson Protests: Rev. Jesse Jackson Leads Demonstrators Through City Hours After Clashes With Police

Updated 9:20 p.m.: The Rev. Jesse Jackson was booed during a march with protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, when he tried to pass a collection plate, Twitter users said.

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Ferguson, MO -- Hundreds of demonstrators gathered peacefully on a side street in Ferguson Saturday, marking the spot where Michael Brown, 18, was killed by police officers seven days earlier. “The thing I appreciate the most is that this is nonviolent,” said Chenhotel Freeman, 27, who had come from Kansas City, Missouri, to participate in the march.

Demonstrators convened just a block from the intersection where, about 12 hours earlier, police and protesters clashed once again in an hourslong standoff that started with a smoke bomb and ended with mass looting. “I feel like the looting had nothing to do with our cause,” said Darian Thomas, 17, who attended the march. “We need to be doing something positive. We need to be rebuilding.”

Thomas, who came from St.Louis City, emphasized that he felt nonviolent protests and demonstrations were a better way to advocate their cause. The Rev. Jesse Jackson led the group through the city on a journey stretching from Canfield Apartments to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, passing the burnt down QuikTrip convenience store many have started to call “ground zero.”

“The struggle continues," Jackson said through a megaphone to the crowd, “who echoed his words. “When we fall we get back up again."

Brown's killing has incited a week's worth of protests, in which residents have called on law enforcement to investigate the killing and charge the officer responsible. The issue addresses tensions that have been growing for generations in the St. Louis suburb where 69 percent of the population is black and 94 percent of the police force is white.