Roughly 20 people stood outside Anderson City Hall on Monday evening in white T-shirts that bore this message in black letters: “No justice, no peace.”

Those gathered were members of the Southeast Anderson Community Task Force, residents of Anderson’s more urban neighborhoods and concerned citizens protesting what they feel is unequal treatment from city of Anderson police officers within the minority community.

Nickolas Mauldin, who works with the nonprofit group Miracles, was at the protest, which took place just before the beginning of the Anderson City Council meeting.

Mauldin said that while he lives on the north side of Anderson, he works with local young people and tries to address the gang problem in the city. And he said he feels that there are “unfair racial situations” going in Anderson.

“White kids can go up to the Belvedere Plaza and hang out, but as soon as two or three black guys go up there, they are told to leave the premise,” Mauldin said.

The organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, that were invited to Monday’s protest did not come, said Horace Alexander, the leader of the Southeast Anderson Community Task Force. But the task force plans to conduct a protest outside City Hall on the fourth Monday of every month, before the city council meetings, until protestors’ voices are heard.

“We want to let the council know this is important to us,” Alexander said.