Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 11 October 2020

2020-10-11_08-04-02_793.jpeg
2020-10-11_08-05-51_701.jpeg
2020-10-11_08-09-15_190.jpeg
2020-10-11_10-14-35_604.jpeg

Title

Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 11 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.

There is a photo of a church behind a fence and to the left of the photograph is a large poster than is hung on a building that reads ‘AFL – CIO supports Black Lives Matter.” There is a spray painted figure of a Native American person with a mask with blue accents. There are blue sentences around the Native American person that read “Plague kills [illegible] people?” “[Illegible] white men destroys [illegible] nation? The figure is holding a poster that reads “Tell me about it.”

Another poster is on the fence that reads at the top “Black Lives Matter Dump Trump Acronymania Dump Trump Black Lives Matter” then under this on the poster reads “Threatening; Rank; Underhanded; Misguided; Pyromaniac” next to this reads “Dump Trump the Chump.” At the bottom of the poster reads “Dump Trump, Dump the Chump; Black Lives Matter; Dump Trump, Dump the Chump.”
There is a sticker on this poster that reads “Police Lives Matter” and on the border of the sticker reads “We the Free > BLEXIT” which is repeated on the border.

There are two posters on the fence and one of them seems to be a memorial picture of Greg “G-Moe” Hill as the top of the poster reads “In Loving Memory” and there are three images of Hill, with one of him with angel wings. Another poster is for a rally and march that would be occurring on October 16, 2020, at the Martin Luther King Jr., memorial. There are three black women on the poster with their fists raised and the poster reads “Protect Black Women.” There is an American flag that is also tucked behind the poster in the fence. The poster further reads “Rally & March In Washington, DC Friday, October 16, 2020 3:00 PM Martin Luther [sic] King Jr. Memorial 1964 Independence SW Washington, DC 20003.” Lower on the poster reads “’Say Their Names’ Join US in Washington, DC www.C4RacialJustice.org”

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

2020-10-11

Contributor

MM

Identifier

UAM-GF_3721

Geolocation