The Occupy Baltimore protesters were back at the corner of Pratt and Light streets today, holding signs that said “It’s not ok” and “We are the 99 percent,” following an evening meeting that organizers said drew about 225 people, including more than three dozen who stayed there overnight.

After a slow start to their event yesterday afternoon, the group’s numbers swelled at last night’s “General Assembly” meeting at Occupy Baltimore’s declared homebase, McKeldin Square, at the Inner Harbor. Many participants said they had been at a protest earlier in the evening against a proposed youth jail, which The Baltimore Sun said attracted more than a  hundred people.

“We recognize that this is a movement that needs to be built,” said  Cullen Nawalkowsky (aka “Cullen Stalin”) who emailed The Brew with an update on last night’s doings. There is another General Assembly meeting tonight, he said.

Nawalkowsky said yesterday he thought one of the Occupy Baltimore’s accomplishments so far is bringing various progressive together groups together: Baltimore Free Farm, Red Emma’s Bookstore, 2640 at St. Paul St. and others. Asked about the absence of significant numbers of African-American participants , Nawalkowsky said all are welcome and hoped to see greater diversity. But in the meantime, he said, “I feel there’s already a lot of organizing going on in the city and a lot of organizing going on in the black community.”

There is, he said, “a lot of commonality of grievances.”