Protesters marching for Martin Luther King Jr. Day blocked all west bound lanes of the Bay Bridge’s eastern span for roughly a half hour Monday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The action was one of many that have taken place in the last several days, including actions outside of the homes of San Francisco’s mayor and police chief.

Protesters posted video on Twitter of them chaining themselves across the bridge chanting as onlookers from stopped traffic looked on.

Mia Birdsong, a spokesperson for Black.Seed, the group behind the blockade, said about 40 to 50 people were involved in the protest. They “drove out on the bridge, stopped their cars and chained themselves to the bridge,” said Birdsong.

“Disruptions of this kind,” said Birdsong, are a way of stopping business as usual to force political leaders like Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland’s Mayor Libby Schaaf to take real action on behalf of black and brown people facing gentrification and police brutality.

For the second year in a row, a group called The Anti Police Terror Project have called for activist to take action for 96 hours to renew what they call the radical roots of Martin Luther King Jr., said Birdsong.

Actions like Monday’s, said Bridsong, remind the “powerful what it is to be powerless.”

By about 4:30 p.m. traffic on the bridge was flowing again.

Bay City News contributed to this story.

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