Twenty thousand counter-protestors marched from Roxbury to the Boston Common, where a so-called “Free Speech” rally was held Saturday. There, another 20,000 people had assembled chanting anti-racism, anti-Trump slogans.

The day of protest and a much bigger counter protest made international headlines and was widely seen as a rebuke to white supremacists who had gathered a week before in Charlottesville, Va., and to President Donald Trump.  

By 9 a.m., hundreds had already assembled on Malcolm X Blvd., at the Reggie Lewis Center.  Before the march, police confiscated sticks and poles that were used to hold placards, one of which read “death to Nazis, impeach Trump, this land is our land too.”  

“Looka here, we got to be here,"said John Selders, a United Church of Christ bishop from Hartford. "Where hate is, love’s gotta show up too, and I’m embodying some love.” 

By 11 a.m., a multi-hued collection of nearly 20,000 marchers began streaming down Tremont Street, according to Boston Police estimates. They included Jews, Muslims, Native Americans, Asians, Latinos, blacks, whites, teachers, clergy, trade unionists, laborers, nurses and doctors.

“I’m an internal medicine resident at Boston Medical Center, and this is my first political rally,” Matt Strickland said. “I grew up in Canada. I would watch things like this unfold. I would be a supporter but from afar. And with what’s going on right now in the U.S., especially in Charlottesville recently, I felt that I had to draw a line and be here.”

By 12:45 marchers began arriving at the Boston Common, just as the Free Speech rally was breaking up. The rally organizers lacked a sound system, and their much louder detractors drowned out every word they uttered.   

Thousands cheered as cops in riot gear escorted 50 or fewer people at the rally out of the area, for their own protection. Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans praised what he called the 99.9 percent of counter-demonstrators who were there “for the right reasons.”   

But sporadic fights away from the main group briefly interrupted the peace.