On June 6, 2020, tens of thousands gathered across the city — from Hyde Park to Parliament Square, and outside the U.S. Embassy in Nine Elms. Protesters held signs reading “The UK is Not Innocent,” “Silence is Violence,” and “Black Lives Matter Everywhere.”
The crowds were diverse and intergenerational, a tapestry of people moved by shared outrage and empathy. Many knelt in silence for eight minutes and forty-six seconds — the length of time George Floyd was pinned beneath an officer’s knee.
The protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, though they occasionally clashed with police as frustration over government responses and racial inequality came to the surface. In Bristol, demonstrators made global headlines by toppling the statue of slave trader Edward Colston and throwing it into the harbor — an act that symbolized a larger movement to confront the legacies of empire and oppression.
