“Black Lives Matter Plaza will no longer stain the streets of Washington DC,” he said. “America’s capital city must serve as a beacon of freedom, patriotism and safety – not wokeness, divisiveness and lawlessness.”
Names and symbols have been a preoccupation for the second Trump administration and its Republican allies. One of Trump’s first executive orders was to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and he banned a major US news agency, the Associated Press, from the Oval Office and Air Force One for refusing to use the new name. The president also renamed Denali, a mountain in Alaska, to Mount McKinley.
The Black Lives Matter mural was painted in June 2020 amid protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd.Credit: Kate Armstrong
On Sunday, members of Kappa Alpha Psi, a black fraternity, gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza to sing and remember. Richard Mattox, one of their number, told local NBC television the group was not protesting and understood why the artwork was being removed.
“But we want it to be known that you can erase this, but you cannot erase our history,” he said. “This is just a setback before a serious comeback.”
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The mural’s removal is far from the only change being made in Washington to appease Republicans. Last week, Trump ordered Bowser to remove the “unsightly” homeless encampments around the city, specifically those near the White House and outside the State Department’s C Street headquarters.
“If she is not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her! Washington DC must become CLEAN and SAFE!” Trump posted on social media.
The city duly began clearing out the camps on Friday morning, starting with about a dozen tents near the State Department in Foggy Bottom. A timetable of future clean-ups has been posted online, with 11 more locations slated for clearing in the next three weeks.
The District of Columbia operates under the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress the power to block laws passed by the district’s council. Theoretically, Congress could also revoke home rule.
