Stephen Lawrence is a name seldom out of the news over recent weeks, and it was very much around this case that some black community and left-wing organisations united to organise this march.
They see a need for a Civil Rights Movement in the UK rooted in the black experience and independent of such establishment organisations as the CRE; one participant even came with a bike with bolted on stereo playing the speeches of Martin Luther King.
What was clear was the anger those black people taking part towards the police. Many took advantage of the open invitation to address the event. Most gave personal testimony of their own experience of police harassement. Others talked not only of the Lawrence case (key witness Duwayne Brooks was among the marchers), but of the deaths of a number of black people in police custody. The route passed 3 police stations where such deaths had occured, each being marked with speeches and a minutes silence.
Also on the march were those concerned with assylum seekers rights, civil rights in Ireland and elsewhere. It was a fairly small event with perhaps 500 marchers (and about 30 photographers and several video crews!)
The police of course were at their best, ignoring anti-police chants and clearing a way through the traffic.
It was in some ways a very
British event.
More pictures available shortly on Peter Marshall's web site