Under a directive by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, District workers have begun painting over the art in Black Lives Matter Plaza, which she publicly commissioned in 2020 in response to the racial justice movement that escalated after the police-involved murder of George Floyd during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On June 5, 2020, the D.C. Department of Public Works painted the words “Black Lives Matter” in 35-foot-tall yellow capital letters.
Bowser’s most recent decision to remove the big, bright letters, covering 16th Street NW in front of the White House, was under pressure from the current Trump administration and the GOP majority on Capitol Hill.
Last week, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) introduced legislation threatening to withhold funds for the District if the slogan wasn’t removed. In addition to removing the sign of solidarity for racial equity, it also called for renaming the area “Liberty Plaza.
Before he assumed office on Jan. 20, Bowser traveled to Florida for a courtesy visit with President Donald J. Trump on Dec. 30
In a statement following the Mar-a-Lago meeting, Mayor Bowser stated, “President Trump and I both want Washington, D.C., to be the best and most beautiful city in the world, and we want our capital city to reflect the strength of our nation.”
She made the visit seem amicable.
“We discussed areas of collaboration between local and federal government, especially around our federal workforce, underutilized federal buildings, parks and green spaces, and infrastructure,” Bowser continued. “I am optimistic that we will continue to find common ground with the president during his second term.”
While it might have been politically wise for Bowser to visit West Palm Beach and attend the inauguration, she realizes — and probably already knew — that Trump’s words of collaboration were a cover for a plan to take over the District. With criticism of the nation’s capital’ streets, unhoused residents and local authority — as Congress is now working to overturn D.C.’s Home Rule that allows local elected officials to make decisions about District governmental affairs as opposed to the federal government— Trump and the GOP want to control what’s happening beyond Capitol Hill and the White House.
Until Monday, Black Lives Matter Plaza served as a painful reminder of Floyd’s public death outside a deli in Minneapolis at the hands of a uniformed police officer 11 days earlier.
However, once Clyde introduced his legislation, Bowser noted the District has “bigger fish to fry.”
Furthermore, painted during Trump’s first presidency, it served as a potent symbol of activism, a gathering place for both joy and resistance, and a reminder that the struggle for racial equality continues.
Nonetheless, in this second Trump administration there’s more concerns facing District residents.
“The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference,” the mayor said in a statement last week.
In 2020, the plaza symbolized Bowser’s defiance against federal overreach in what turned out to be the last six months of his first term. Her decision to paint over it reveals the mayor’s heightened concern about Trump and GOP this go-around.
Despite her hope that removing the slogan would take Trump’s target off the District, “Black Lives Matter Plaza,” the heat from federal leaders remains.
Just this week, after the District Department of Transportation announced that it would begin weeks of work to the area, the stand gap bill introduced by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) threatens hundreds of millions of federal dollars for District programming, firefighters, teachers and residents.
If the last month-and-a-half worth of executive orders have proven anything, once Trump puts his mind to something he’s determined to see it through. His disdain for the District has been evident since his first presidency and continued, such as in 2023 when he described the “filth and decay” in D.C.
Even though the mayor chose to conceal Black Lives Matter Plaza, this will not alter Trump’s view of the nation’s capital.
Despite earnest efforts from the mayor, in the age of Trump’s executive orders preventing the teaching of parts of Black history and eliminating federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, Washington, D.C., and Bowser — a Black woman — will remain a target.
While Trump has declared now is the time to end the era of wokeness, it is more critical than ever for Bowser, local leaders, Washingtonians and all Americans to remain wide awake to presidential and congressional threats.
With less than two months into his second term, this is just the beginning of a long four years for the District, nation and world.
In the words of the Childish Gambino (also known as Donald Glover) song “Redbone” from the Grammy-nominated album “Awaken, My Love” (2016): “Stay woke.”
Removing the slogan in response to political pressure won’t end the ongoing tension.