Police mostly kept their distance all evening. They blocked off streets some distance from protesters and let the march happen.

But before one of the groups reached SLU, the marchers were stopped on Grand near the campus by a line of police officers in riot gear. After a delay of several minutes, the officers stepped aside and let the chanting marchers pass.

"They're doing a pretty good job, I'll give them that," Derek Clark, who has marched with protesters in the area the last several days, said of the police.

Jordan Henry, 21, said he has been a target of police profiling. He was once arrested for running out of a 7-11, he said, and without demonstrations like this change would never happen.

"There's not much you can do if no one's listening," Henry said.

Later, as two protest groups met up and entered the SLU campus, several students among the marchers flashed their campus identification at security officials. Once the marchers were on SLU grounds, many students came outside their dormitories to watch.

"I was out on my balcony with my friend and saw police pull up and start barricading" Grand Boulevard, said sophomore Alek Knapowski.