In 1990, the Senegalese community living in Florence organized a protest in order to react to several racist events and forms of violence, to a series of measures that local and national administrations had introduced, and to challenge the ways in which foreign immigration was presented in the media. The protest took the form of a hunger strike, enacted in a public square in the very center of the city, near the main cathedral, and was supported by a large part of Florentine citizens. The event had a wide echo and gave political legitimation to its promoters. In many ways, the protest and its outcome anticipated issues that became particularly relevant in the 21th century. However, it was quickly forgotten. The article examines the preconditions and the context in which the hunger strike took place, and tells the story from the point of view of the square in which it took place. It does so by drawing on published and unreleased sources, and texts and documents that the author wrote or gathered in 1990.