Black Lives Matter protesters 'reclaim' Martin Luther King day

Protests took place in California and New York as part of a nationwide effort to 'reclaim Martin Luther King day'.

The Black Lives Matter movement marched yesterday in an attempt to 'reclaim' Martin Luther King day.

Hundreds of activists in California marched from Oakland to Emeryville, rallying outside shopping centres and blocking a section of the Bay Bridge.

One protest location was a Home Depot store where a 38-year-old black woman Yvette Henderson was shot and killed by police last year.

One protester named Cat Brook in the video above explained his reason for protesting. "They managed to sanitise his (Martin Luther King's) image. All we hear about is the 'I have a dream' speech, the 'love your brother' speech, but they don't want to talk about the King that was connecting the dots between race and class."

Similar protests were seen in New York as hundreds of protesters disrupted Mayor Bill De Blasio's speech at a church in Brooklyn.

After being turned away from the church, activists marched onto downtown Manhattan accompanied by a brass band, carrying placards with slogans featuring 'police brutality', 'racial profiling' and one reading 'f**k Nazis'.

The 'reclaim Martin Luther King day' movement began in last year after protesters voiced concerns over the day becoming too commercialsed, and people forgetting King's legacy as a civil rights activist.