As many students and local residents observed silence, life in Harvard Square went on as always. Students carrying Coop bags shuffled between the Yard and the Square and rush hour traffic sped by.
Originally slated to take place in Copley Square, the vigil was moved to Harvard Square after a midday bomb scare and FBI raid caused the original location’s safety to be called into question.
“Our thought was that we needed to go ahead with the vigil and we wanted to do it in a way that permitted as many people as possible to attend,” Gerson said of the mid-afternoon decision to move the peace rally to Harvard Square.
Yesterday’s vigil wasn’t the only local rally that came as a reply to the tragedy on Tuedsday. A 400-strong rally of people waving American flags and holding patriotic signs emerged outside of the Boston State House this afternoon after a press conference by Acting Governor Jane Swift.
—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.