Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 08 October 2020
- Title
- Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 08 October 2020
- Coverage
- H Street NW and 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C., USA
- Description
- Protest signs and posters on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, located on the north side of Lafayette Park in Washington D.C.
Multiple posters read “America BE Better” “We Can Do Better” “Join Armenia in War Against Turkish Terror” “If You’re Not Outraged Ur [sic] Not Paying Attention,” “White Guilt is your conscience speaking to you. Please Listen” with specific words underlined in red. A poster in the image of a trans flag reads “Black Trans Lives Matter.” A black poster reads “Black Fathers Matter.” A cluster of posters read “Justice para Vanessa Guillén” “JUSTICE Vanessa” “Gracias Latina Valiente”, which has a flower that is drawn on the poster. There is a poster that reads, “How Could You “LIE” To Us About LIFE + DEATH.”
There is a photograph of Trae Darson and next to this is a poster that reads “The People That Learned.” And there is an image of pink hearts and a circle that looks to be stylized butterflies and underneath this reads “To Love.” Which was done by Clara in 2020.
There is a stained glass window on the King Emmanuel Baptist Church that has burn marks underneath it and on the window next to it is a white spray-painted black power hand on the notice board for the church.
Multiple posters read “Solidarity” “Silence is Compliance #Black Lives Matter” “Good Cops Dont [sic] Exist” “This is Some Bullshit”
There is a poster that made ‘Trump’ into an acronym and there is a word that follows each letter of his name the first column reads “Trivial [;] Ridiculous[;] Unimportant [;]Meaningless [;]President” and the second column reads “Twisted [;] Repulsive [;] Unscrupulous [;] Molesting [;] Pussy-grabber.” The top of the poster reads “Black Lives Matter [;] Dump Trump [;]Acronymania [;] Dump Trump [;] Black Lives Matter” while at the bottom of the poster reads “Dump Trump, Dump the Chump[;] Black Lives Matter[;] Dump Trump, Dump the Chump.”
One poster reads “This building is of the center of FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY. TRUMP has turned the White House into a cesspool of COVID. Vote Democrat”. There is a multicolored poster that reads “Black Lives Matter”
A poster reads “BLEACH 10/4/2020 [then Arabic text is written under this] WE the people of color and colors [;] Demand to be treated Fair + Lovely [with ‘+ Love’ crossed out] You suggest US to ingest Bleach [‘] You suggest that we become white inside, Dead inside Kill ourselves, Colonize ourselves [;] WE Demand that you, Decolonize your mind, our systems, our stories [;] Try to Bleach us. But our Fabric, our thread out contributions. ARE forever ARE here to STAY.”
On a pillar, there are two posters. The first poster is white and reads [from top to bottom, left to right] “Black Lives Matter [;] End Police Brutality [;] Am I Next?!? [;] I Cant Breath!! [sic] [;] Caution!! [;] No Justice No Peace [;] Whats not a crime bing [sic] black say it louder for the whites in the back! [;] Dont Shoot!! [;] Women Rights! [;]” In the middle of the poster are names of victims of police brutality and short statements which read “Why me!” “Respect!” “Hate” “Please!” “Say there [sic] name!” “Sir” “Color!” “This before you shoot!” “We need respect” “Pain!”.
On a wall multiple posters read “End the School-To-Prison Pipeline #BLM #Police Free Schools” “Hate And Fear Must Be Answered With Love And Hope” “Black Lives Matter” “Palestine Will Be Free” “Stop Police Brutality Against Black Lives Defund And Reform the Popo” The rest of the posters have been spray painted over but there is a small piece of paper over the spray paint that reads, “Black Lives Still Matter Some People Have Moved on But Not Us!”
There are multiple symbols on the poster too such as a black power fist with “B.L.M.” on the fist itself, and a heart that has “Pls” and “Rip” inside the heart, there is a colorful flower as well.
Where the black poster reads “Black Lives Matter”, and “Trans” is written on top of it in green paint. The poster has a drawing of a hand that is making the peace symbol and the earth is in the palm and there are black, red, white, and yellow rays coming from the hand. There is gold writing on the poster that reads “On August 13, 2020 MPD rounded up a group of about 40 protesters & detained them. They dropped ALL charges but kept cell phones & photo cameras. What About our Property? #WAP.”
On the pillar itself there is writing that reads “Don’t Tell Women Wha [sic] To Do” - Source
The Black Lives Matter Memorial fence was a temporary chainlink fence installed in the area north of Lafayette Park and the White House from June 2, 2020, until January 30, 2021. The fence prevented public access to the area, and it also served as an important site of protest and self-expression.
Activist Nadine Seiler played a crucial role in protecting and caring for the fence, along with Karen Irwin and other activists in a loosely-formed group informally known as the "Guardians of the Fence." Nadine Seiler and Aliza Leventhal systematically documented the fence over the course of months, and Seiler became the de facto curator of the fence.
Additional information:
Library of Congress blog post "Protest Preserved: Signs from D.C.'s Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence"
D.C. Public Library Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence Artifact Collection”- Rights
- Photographer: Aliza Leventhal
Images are collected in this archive for educational purposes and are not intended for commercial use. Reproduction rights for all images remain with the creators/photographers when we are able to identify them.
We seek to identify artistic creators when they want to be identified, and we respect their rights to protect their identity should they choose to remain anonymous. Please contact us if you are the creator of work in this archive and you wish to be identified or if you wish for your work to be removed from the archive. - Publisher
- Urban Art Mapping
- Date
- 2020-10-08
- Contributor
- MM
- Identifier
- UAM-GF_3718
Files
Collection
Citation
“Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 08 October 2020,” George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art , accessed May 23, 2025, https://georgefloydstreetart.omeka.net/items/show/3718.