CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — After a day of protests meant to shut down Black Friday shopping to bring attention to black issues, by 4:30pm local time Michigan Avenue had mostly returned to normal. Traffic had returned to the street and shoppers were out in force, but pockets of activists still remained and continued to block the entrances to business. As the sun set in Chicago, the reality was still setting in: the Black Friday Shut Down was one of the left’s most successful direct actions in a recent memory. It was disruptive–but it was peaceful. And it was effective.