Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 14 October 2020
- Title
- Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 14 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 pastel yellow building that is opposite the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence and is boarded up. There are painted images that are on the plywood that is covering the windows. These images are all spray painted on the plywood and one is the sunrise (or sunset), one has a woman with a mask with her hands in front of her and looks like she is praying. Another image has the side portrait of a man and there is text that reads “Lve” and “Pinder Story.”
There is a black ripped poster and underneath it is a poster that is pink, purple, and blue, that has a woman in the middle with her fist raised and holding a baby. The woman is in a circle and there is text that reads “Today I am Free • Today I am Strong” There are broken chains on the edge of the poster intertwined with flowers and roots. There is a dove at the top and text that reads “You’re wrong about me I’m a sister and a daughter [;] A mother, aunt, grandmother [;] Not a criminal Not a statistic [;] I have a life I have a dream [;] I am a queen a [illegible]…”
There are multiple posters on a wall that reads “Is My Son Next ??????” “Fuck MPD” (which is spray painted in yellow on a black background) #Black Power” “Black Lives Matter “Algeria for BLM” “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” “Be an ENEMY to the OPPRESSORS and a HELPER to the OPPRESSED - Imam Ali (as)”
There are different paintings that are on pieces of paper that are on the wall and other ripped posters. One poster reads “We need more Peace Life Love” There is a drawn peace sign in blue, a green tree and a pink heart respectively over the words, “peace” “life” and “love”.
There is a poster that reads “The Palm Collective” and is on a black poster but has been spraypainted the colors of the rainbow with a symbol on it.
There are two portraits in a black and grey color scheme, and it has yellow and green in the background and seem to be representative of traditional African people.
A poster reads “Abolish Prisons” and it has two hands that are breaking cell bars with a red circle with a line through it
Another poster reads “It’s not Right or Left its Life or Death.”
There is a poster that looks like a rendition of Mount Rushmore but has the heads of Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, Malcom X, Barack Obama, and Nelson Mandela. The poster reads “VOTE” and on the bottom it reads “They Sacrificed.” There is a green handprint on the wall underneath this poster and a paper that has a QR code that leads to a website that lets people register to vote.
There is a poster that reads “No Justice No Peace” and has the black power fist raised that is in the middle of a circle on the poster. - 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
- 2020-10-14
- Contributor
- MM
- Identifier
- UAM-GF_3724
Files
Collection
Citation
“Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 14 October 2020,” George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art , accessed May 12, 2025, https://georgefloydstreetart.omeka.net/items/show/3724.