LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It's been 24 days since the first Black Lives Matter protest in Little Rock.
The protests centered around a call to action for racial equality.
Zaria McClinton, one of the protest organizers, said the progress being made in the capital city is beautiful.
"A lot has changed," she said.
Even though Little Rock's City Hall steps are barren and no chanting is heard down the street, the voices that once filled this area are still being heard.
McClinton said city leaders had no choice but to hear them.
"We've had meetings with a lot of officials -- with the mayor, with the governor -- and we've actually made progress, as far as getting actual changes within the community," she said.
Progress that, according to McClinton, didn't come easy but validated the fight.
"All the hard work, all the first couple of days of protests, all of those first couple of days of us getting tear gassed and rubber bullets shot at us was all worth it because we're actually making a change," she said.
McClinton said Gov. Hutchinson's law enforcement task force and Mayor Frank Scott Jr.'s committee to review police policy shows they are listening.
"It means they actually care about our community and they actually care about what is going on and they want to see change as much as we do," she said.
It's change the 23-year-old believes has a ways to go when it comes to what takes place within the city limits.
"As far as community violence, that's something that Little Rock has been dealing with for years and I feel like more so now," she said.
Figuring out how to handle this is next on the agenda for community organizers like McClinton.
Even though weeks have gone by, she said their message is still the same: Equality for all and pushing for change from the inside out.
"So that a lot of things that are not only happening around the country, but in Little Rock, can cease to happen cause it starts with leaders in our community," McClinton said.
Monday night on PBS News Hour, Gov. Hutchinson addressed that he is pushing for a hate crime law because Arkansas is one of four states without it.