Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 22 November 2020

Title

Protest signs and artwork on the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence, Date: 22 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 an image of the Memorial Fence and the Washington Monument behind it and there is a bike, chairs, coolers, and bags that are in front of the fence. People are in front of the fence and one is holding a poster protesting. Multiple posters read “Stop Killing Us” “Pay A Black Woman Today” “Black Lives Matter” “Resist “We are the Majority” “Black Trans Lives Matter” “Trump Is A Danger To Us All” “White silence Fuels Domestic [illegible]” “#DefundMPD EndSARS” “Fuck Your Fence” “Join Campaign Zero” “#Say Their Names” “Jesus knows Black Lives Need More Than Thoughts & Prayers”. There is also a Mexican flag hanging from the stoplight

A poster reads “Baby Trump, Your’e [sic] coming out of the Whitehouse [sic] Don’t forget first Vice President KAMALA Harris And President Biden is coming”

Multiple posters read “Young Black Lives Old Black Lives Gay Black Lives Trans Black Lives Non-Binary Black Lives Matter” and “Diversity Is The Future” “Black Trans Lives Matter” “Is anyone really surprised that DONALD TRUMP is trying to force himself on America after she said no!” “Abolition requires that we CHANGE one thing which is EVERYTHING” “Thank You Stacey Abrams and Black Voters Everywhere” “Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend did not shoot at police…..he shot at someone trying to break into his home” “57% of white people STILL voted for Trump ?!?!?!?!” “We Can’t Repeal Our Pre-Existing Conditions” “11/06/2020 You’re Fired! Get out of MY House!” “Reclaiming The People’s House” “Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Everywhere” “We DUMPed [sic] TRUMP!” “You Will Never Get Away With This” “Person Woman Man VOTE Biden Harris” “Mitch Don’t Forget Essential Workers” “Thank You Jim Clyburn Stacy Abrams! African Americans saved this country Again! Thank you!”

There is a poster with the black power fist on it and a rainbow drawn on the top right corner and a gold heart in the fist and it reads “All lives can’t matter until black’s minorily [sic] lives matter too ! Black Lives Matter [;] It takes more eff[illegible]”

A poster has a spray-painted image of a red rose on it and written over it reads “We’re all in this together ! Vote. Vote. Vote!! The Duty of a True Patriot is to Protect County from it’s Government!”

There is a green poster that has a silver spray-painted pyramid on it and a red spray-painted eye on top of it which seems to represent the Illuminati.

A poster reads “This Daughter of an Immigrant Dyke Voted Your White Supremacist Ass Out” and the word “dyke” is filled in with rainbow colors.

There is a poster that has a portrait of a black woman without a face and there is a thought bubble that reads “#SayHerName” and behind the portrait are names of women who died because of police brutality. Some names that are able to be seen read “Tanisha Anderson [illegible]arleena Lyles[;] Sandra [;] McKenna P[illegible] Turner [illegible] Gabriella [;] Miriam Carey [;] Shelly Frey [;] Malissa [illegible] [;] Shantel Davis [;] [illegible] [;] Sherese Fra[illegible] [;] Breonna Taylor”

A poster has an image of two hands reaching out to each other and it reads “Stop Separating Families #AbolishICE [;] What if it was your family?”

A poster reads “Sin Justicia No Habra Paz which translates into “Without Justice, there will not be Peace” and there is a drawing of a police car that is on fire.

A poster reads in Russian “в отставку Трамп Resign!” which translates to “Resign Trump Resign”

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

2020-11-22

Contributor

MM

Identifier

UAM-GF_3758