A protest against police violence planned with 24 hours notice by a group of Arkansas college students grew to include dozens of people Friday after the killings of two black men and five police officers in recent days.

The crowd of close to 200 gathered on the steps of the state Capitol for an hour-long rally was diverse and included small children, mothers and fathers, and a nun, as well as several people in scrubs.

Police were not visibly present around the protesters, though Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner said at a news conference held around the same time that officers were monitoring protests throughout the weekend.

Five police officers were killed in Dallas on Thursday night in protest against police killings of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana this week.

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The three students who held the rally — friends who met at Bryant High School — said they were inspired to hold a public demonstration after seeing news coverage of Philando Castile's death in Minnesota but that they were not "anti-police."

"We stand, I stand with the good cops that are out there trying to serve our community," organizer Christian Taylor, 18, told the crowd.

Close to a dozen people spoke to the crowd and differed somewhat in what they thought the message of the event should be. "All lives matter" and that most police are good were common sentiments, while most stressed that there was a greater need to focus specifically on the police use of force against black people.

"I feel like this upcoming generation is trying to put an end to racism, to put a end to police brutality," Taylor told reporters afterward.

Taylor held the event with his high school friends Cody Jones, 19, and Michelle Wallace, 20. All are current students or planning to attend Arkansas colleges. A fourth student organizer was unable to attend, they said, promising to hold another rally with him.

The three said they began texting Thursday about holding the protest and promoted it through the Facebook group "Hands Up, Guns Down."

The protest was not affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, Wallace said, but the three hope to be in the future.

"Christian's black; Cody's white; I'm black and white, and we came together," Wallace said. "Look at us, a perfect example."

Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.