Tens of thousands of anti-racism protesters marched Saturday in downtown Boston in response to a self-described “Free Speech” rally that had sparked concerns of possible violence.

Organizers of the rally had publicly distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others whose “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville turned deadly Aug. The largely peaceful rally on Boston Common, which attracted only a small crowd, disbanded early and police escorted out the participants.

The organisers of the rally said that "While we maintain that every individual is entitled to their freedom of speech and defend that basic human right, we will not be offering our platform to racism or bigotry," the group wrote on a Facebook page dedicated to the event. "We denounce the politics of supremacy and violence."

Police maintained a buffer zone between marchers and rally participants thereby averting major incidents except for occasional clashes and shouting matches between the counterprotesters and supporters of President Donald Trump.