Four Walmart stores and a Sam's Club in Little Rock closed on Sunday in the home state of the retail giant as a result of Black Lives Matter demonstrators who protested outside store entrances.
The effort intended to shutter local Walmart stores signified a step up for the recent racial-justice demonstrations in Little Rock in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Although protests continued in the city over the course of last week, they appeared to decrease in size from initial demonstrations between May 30 and June 2.
On Sunday, demonstrators chanted "no justice, no peace," and "defund prisons, defund Walmart" outside stores, making their way from location to location.
Little Rock police were visible outside at least three Walmart locations in the Little Rock area on Sunday afternoon. At a Walmart Supercenter on Bowman Road, an officer was seen at an entrance turning away would-be shoppers and telling them that the store was closed.
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According to a company spokesman, Walmart stores on Baseline Road, Bowman Road, Cantrell Road and South Shackleford Road, as well as a Sam's Club on Bowman Road, closed on Sunday and were expected to remain closed for the rest of the day.
"We're monitoring this situation closely and will continue closing stores as a safety precaution for our customers and associates," Walmart spokesman John Forrest Ales wrote in an email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday afternoon. "We recognize the important role we play in the Little Rock community and plan to reopen stores at an appropriate time."
Activist Dawn Jeffrey told protesters while livestreaming on Facebook outside of the Walmart Supercenter located on Cantrell Road that they were done with the "wicked Waltons." She described the big-box chain's founding family as taking too much money from the community and investing in private prisons.
"This is what people power looks like, when you're taking their dollars," Jeffrey said of their effort to disrupt shopping, while standing among a crowd of demonstrators in the parking lot.
She urged them not to forget why they were there: "Defund the police. Stop killing us. Get your foot off our necks," Jeffrey said. "It's time."
Demonstrators formed a loose human chain near the entrance to the Cantrell store, as recorded on Jeffrey's video. When she told them about 20 minutes later that the store was closing, they cheered.
Lt. Michael Ford, a Little Rock police spokesman, said in an email that Little Rock police did not coordinate with Walmart on the decision to close stores. There were no arrests or reports of damage associated with the protests, according to Ford.
Like other cities nationwide, Little Rock saw large demonstrations during the days following Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25.
Between May 30 and June 1, police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators who had gathered at the Arkansas State Capitol. On June 2, 79 people were arrested as a large crowd of demonstrators marched from the Capitol to the Governor's Mansion and then back into downtown Little Rock.
The crowds gradually decreased in size over the subsequent days, but some protests and events continued into last week.
Also Sunday, about 60 people gathered at the state Capitol as a counterprotest to a planned birthday rally for President Donald Trump. The rally did not happen, and the counterprotesters marched up the Capitol steps and chanted. At one point, a group danced in the street.