Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 06 November 2020

Title

Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 06 November 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 poster on the ground that has an image of the earth and a large tree on top of it next to a moon and two hearts. On top of these images are words that read “I Pledge Allegiance To The Earth and to all her creatures Net One United [illegible] love Harmony With Univers[illegible] And Compassion”

There is a red umbrella that have images of yellow spray-painted people on it and it reads “Democracy” on the umbrella which is repeated at least six times. In the background is the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence and it has many posters that read “BLM #blacklivesmatter” “Black Trans Lives Matter” “ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Fuck 12 “Trump is Guilty” “BLM” “Black Lives Matter” “Love Wins Biden Harris” “We Need Police Reform” “Ruthless and Determined” “Rest In Power Ruth Bader Ginsberg” “ACAB” “Fund The Communities” “Bad Biddies 4 Biden” “AmeriKKKa” “Yeah The Black Guy Did It” “Count Every Vote” “Become ungovernable” “Climate Emergency” “No Justice No Peace No Racist Police” “Abolish The Police” “Dump Trump” “@IAMKAMALX” “LIBERTY and JUSTICE for all not some.” There is an acronym on a poster that reads “DUMP TRUMP [;] Terrifying Racist Unrepentant Malicious PIG”

There is a silhouette of a woman and the poster reads “For Our Future let Equality Bloom” and inside the silhouette reads “Racism isn’t Taught It’s Learned [;] BLM”

There is an image of a woman with a rose in her hair and there seems to be an eagle on her shirt. The poster reads “We The People [;] Defend Dignity. There is a sticker attached that reads “#celebrateimmigrants” and it has many different international flags such as Canada, Japan, USA, United Kingdom, Ireland, Nigeria, Mexico, India, France, Italy, Turkey, Puerto Rico, China, Honduras, Taiwan, Venezuela, and Cameroon.

There is a poster that reads “Demand Democracy” which is crossed out with white paint and underneath this reads “No Genuine Democracy Under US Imperialism.” There is a sticker of the white house with the American flag behind it and it reads “Trump, You’re Fired!”

Other posters read “Fuck Racism” “This movement needs YOU” “Thanks God” “Doomsday is Here…” “Convict Killer Cops” “Count Every Vote” “Your hatred Racial Slurs and Ignorance do not define me…” “Arrest Breonna’s Killer” “If You Believe In Jesus How Can You Believe in Trump” “Jesus Knows A White Jesus Is A Lie” “WHITE Jesus most important Tool of WHITE Supremacy” “#BLACKVotersMatter” “Trump Bears False Witness – Daily And is adultery ok now, too?” “MATTER is the minimum” “Do the Right Thing?” “No Peace Until We ABOLISH the Police” “Say Their Names Rest In Power” “Black Trans Lives Matter.”

There are two black power fists drawn on a poster with blue markings on them. There are multiple images of victims of police brutality.
There is a poster that reads “Trump is Orange NOT pink!! #fakenews www.Subversiveware.com” and there is an image of two pink balls and a large pink object between them.

“tRumpvangelical The gospel according to tRump, 1:1.1 Thou shall pay off as many WHORES as MAGA-ts will turn a BLIND eye to” The ‘u’ in Trump is replaced with an image of a sickle and hammer.
“Trump is a Whoremonger”

Above this is a poster that reads “Whoremonger Ephesians 5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger , nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God”

“3 Cops Were Caught on Camera Fantasizing About Killing Black People Micheal Kevin Piner ‘he is going to buy a new assault rifle…’ Michael Kevin Piner ‘we are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them f***ing n****rs.’ Michael Kevin Piner ‘…society needed a civil war to ‘wipe’ em off the f***ing map. That’ll put ‘em back about four or five generations.’ Soon, Piner turned the conversation to his belief that a civil war was imminent and his intention to buy high-powered weaponry. After saying he was ready to ‘slaughter’ black people, he added, ‘God, I can’t wait.’ Later, hile complaining about a black judge whom Moore called a ‘f------ negro magistrate,’ Moore added, ‘It’s bad man because not all black people are like that.’ ‘Most of ‘em,’ Piner responded ’90 percent of ‘em, Kevin, 90 f------ percent of ‘em’ Moore said.”

There is a black shirt hanging on the fence that reads “#justiceforjamarionrobinson 76 Bullets.”

There’s an American flag hanging from the fence as well as multiple images of victims of police brutality which read “Rest in Power.”

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

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Publisher

Urban Art Mapping

Date

2020-11-06

Contributor

MM

Identifier

UAM-GF_3745