Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 20 October 2020
- Title
- Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 20 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 small cardboard cutout of Donald Trump that reads “Family Separator #tinytrump.” There is a pink sticker that has the black power fist at the top and flowers surround it. There are two hands below it and they are holding up two weight scales that have a gavel and a dove in them. This sticker reads “No Justice No Peace No Racist Police” This sticker was created by @citizenruthbrand.
There is a view from the ground that shows the fence and people walking on the sidewalk and protesting in the street. On the ground is a line of papers that are black and white printed photos of photos. They read “The Doors are Closing on Evil. White Supremacy is Terrorism” “The Moral Finder of This Country is Torn to Shreds” “Trump’s Life is a Waste of Matter” Trumps a Liar” and the rest are unable to be read properly.
Another shot of the fence shows two flags that are standing up against the fence and one is a black flag that has “Trump” on it with a black circle background that has a red circle with a line going through it. The second black flag next to it is folded over and has “Trump” on it with the communist sickle and hammer replacing the “U” and has a red circle with a line going through it.
There are many posters that reads “Trump Digs His Own Grave” “Trump Lies All The Time” “Trump is Guilty” “Arrest Trump” “None of this is Normal Stop the Gaslighting” “ACAB” “Stop ICE!” “Stop Murdering Black People” “Don’t Force Your Dick on U.S.a [sic]” “Outbreak? Crime Scene? Or Both? Vote Them Out” “Save Our Kids” “votethem out! VoteThem Out!! VOTETHEM OUT!!!” “Black Trans Lives Matter” “Silence is Betrayal” “Yeah The Black Guy Did It” “State of Injustice” “My Body is NOT A Political Playground” “America has had 400 years to make it RIGHT BLM” “Loser” and “Tool of Russia Under Master Putin [-] Threatening Rotten Unscrupulous Murderous Pandemic-Panderer” “No Barrett No Trump No KKK No Fascist USA Fuck Your White Supremacy” “State of Obstruction” “The Trump Hotel is a Crime Scene” “The Trump Hotel is a Breeding Ground of Corruption” “We can’t repeal out pre-existing conditions” “KKK in Blue” “Justice for those Killed” “Black Lives Matter.” And a poster that is on black cardboard with “BLM” that was spraypainted on with yellow spray paint.
A black poster with pink cursive handwriting reads “fuck Trump” and has hearts drawn around it. Another poster that has the silhouette of the Grim Reaper on a yellow background with Mitch McConnell’s face on it reads “Moral Monday Caravan on McConnell” and “STOP McConnell’s Meanness, Mayhem & Misery Pass a Full & Just Stimulus Package!” Another black poster has different colored words and reads “Fuck You GOP!” “Gray Old Peckers.”
There is a black poster that reads “The Silent Unknown” which seems to be a poem and has an image of someone in red with their hands up and head down.
There are multiple pictures of those who lost their lives to police brutality and they have “Rest in Power” or “#SayHerName” and some of them have the victims' names on them. The legible names are “Pamela Turner May 13, 2019” “Bryan Overstreet April 2015” “Cory Levert Tanner Aug 13, 2014” “Zikarious Flint March 30, 2014” “Kiorte Spencer Februrary 26, 20[..]” and “Mathew Ajibade Jan 1, 2015”.
There is a cardboard poster of the Monopoly man who is holding a police officer and it reads “Black Lives Matter R.I.P. George Floyd Breonna Taylor Atatiana Jefferson Freddie Gray” it further has “marcmoneyart.com” and “@marcmoneyart”.
A cardboard poster that has black silhouettes of protesters holding names of people who have been killed by police brutality (Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Tony McDade, D’Quan Young, and George Floyd) reads “All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us.”
A poster that reads “Justice for Queen Breonna” has a portrait of Breonna Taylor with a crown on and there is a painted portrait of Trayvon Martin that reads “Trayvon.”
There is a painted portrait of Vanessa Guillén with the Mexican flag behind her (green, white, and red) that reads “Not one more.”
- 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
- 2020-10-20
- Contributor
- MM
- Identifier
- UAM-GF_3730
Files
Collection
Citation
“Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 20 October 2020,” George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art , accessed July 11, 2025, https://georgefloydstreetart.omeka.net/items/show/3730.