Black Lives Matter Protest - London 2020

I can't breathe..

May 2020, the cry “I can’t breathe” crosses the Atlantic. The killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man suffocated by a white police officer, ignites London as well.

On 3 June, thousands flood Westminster from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Sq. defying Covid-19 bans and distancing rules. Black placards, masks pulled over eyes, knees to asphalt: one demand only, justice for George Floyd.

Tension builds. On 13 June it erupts: far-right groups and football hooligans converge to “defend” statues and monuments; anti-racist protesters push back. Westminster turns into a battleground—bottles fly, police charge, dozens are arrested. A week later, 20 June, fresh marches reclaim the same squares, this time under even tighter policing. Britain’s capital lays bare its fractures.

This story retraces those three Saturdays of protest and confrontation, when a pandemic failed to stop either anger or the hope for change.