Black Lives Matter Activist Is Free

DeRay Mckesson was arrested in Baton Rouge during a protest
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 10, 2016 5:07 PM CDT
Black Lives Matter Activist Is Free
Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson talks to the media after his release from the Baton Rouge jail on Sunday.   (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson was released from jail Sunday after spending a night in lockup following his arrest in Baton Rouge while protesting the shooting death of a black man by police, reports AP. McKesson, 31, was arrested Saturday night while at a protest for Alton Sterling. "The only people that were violent last night were the Baton Rouge Police Department," he said upon his release, per this video from ABC News. Mckesson and others were taken into custody while walking along the side of the Airline Highway and charged with "simple obstruction of highway commerce," reports NBC News.

Mckesson is one of the most recognizable faces to emerge from the Black Lives Matter movement—a former educator who built a national following after leaving his then-home and job in Minneapolis in August 2014 for Ferguson, Missouri, to document the rising anger over race relations after an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, was fatally shot by a white police officer. He now lives in Baltimore, where he grew up, and he waged an unsuccessful campaign for mayor this spring. (More Black Lives Matter stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X