RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Raleigh police say 20 people were arrested during a demonstration Thursday evening that blocked Capital Boulevard.

Protesters blocked a key road near downtown Raleigh Thursday after they gathered outside the Executive Mansion on Blount Street in opposition to Senate Bill 168.

Protesters blocked traffic along Capital Boulevard and were chanting various slogans. That protest began around 5:30 p.m. Thursday and several people were in the road stopping traffic.

Southbound Capital Boulevard near Peace Street was blocked as of 6:45 p.m. Later both directions were blocked — southbound was blocked by protesters and police stopped traffic in northbound lanes.

Name	Charges
Barker, Kacey Marie	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Williams, Elizabeth Ann	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic, False Imprisonment
Wolff, Sarah Jesse	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic, False Imprisonment
Figueroa-Benetti, Raul Antonio	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Emery, Kristin Anne	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Parker, Angelena Maria	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Harrington, Travis Walker	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Schwandt, Zoe Christina	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic, False Imprisonment
Demery, Bradley Tyrone	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Ficker, Autumn Jamie	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Miracco, Michael Christian	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Cremmins, Gabriel Elliot	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Imperial, Ian Alcanices	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic, False Imprisonment
Buchbinder, Caleb Arbutus	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic,  False Imprisonment
Bayoumi, Omar Ahmed	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic, False Imprisonment
Brochin, Nina Mae	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic
Mojarrad, Mehrdad	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic, False Imprisonment
Regensburger, Natya Chen	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic, False Imprisonment
Regensburger, Zoya Chen	Resist Delay Obstruct , Impeding the flow of traffic, False Imprisonment x2

The protesters at one point surrounded a car and held hands in a circle around the car.

“We can’t allow the residents of Raleigh to be ignorant any longer. We can’t allow the cops to be ignorant any longer,” Taari Coleman, an organizer with NC BORN said. “We feel a lot of people are unaware of what’s going on. A lot of people that we interacted with today had no idea what Senate Bill 168 entailed and why it was bad.”

By 6:32 p.m., several Raleigh police officers moved in at the scene and appeared to detain at least two people. The protesters then allowed one car to leave the scene, but overall traffic was still stopped.

By 6:45 p.m., police moved protesters to a thin median strip but the road was still closed in both directions.

Just before 7 p.m., the group began marching in the northbound lanes of Capital Boulevard toward downtown.

The protesters then walked back to the Executive Mansion and Capital Boulevard later reopened.

“I support bringing attention to the injustice that many of us feel,” Michael Frink, a protester said.

More than a dozen arrests have been made at the mansion over the last week. Protesters were also in front of the governor’s residence late into Wednesday night.

On Thursday, protesters were in the middle of Blount Street by 5 p.m.

Thirty minutes later, Raleigh police tweeted that they were asking protesters not to “advance on officers.”

“If they think oh we’re just going to stop, because we’ll leave them alone, or we’ll let them tear down a couple of statues, it’s not going to stop,” G said. He declined to provide his full name.