More than brick and mortar:' DC begins removing ‘Black Lives Matter’ plaza near the White House

With the White House in the background, a man runs through Black Lives Matter Plaza, May 25, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON — Starlette Thomas remembers coming down almost daily to the intersection of 16th and H streets, to protest police brutality and systemic racial iniquities during the summer of 2020.

On Monday, the 45-year old Bowie, Maryland resident returned to the site of those protests to mourn the end of Black Lives Matter Plaza.

“I needed to be here today. I can’t just let this go away,” Thomas said, as jackhammers began tearing into the giant yellow letters in the street. Thomas discretely secured a chunk of pavement and said holding it made her feel conflicted.

“To walk away with a piece of that, it means it’s not gone,” she said. “It’s more than brick and mortar.”

Crews started work Monday to remove the large yellow “Black Lives Matter” painted on the street one block from the White House. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the change last week in response to pressure from Republicans in Congress. The work is expected to take about six weeks and the words will be replaced by an unspecified set of city-sponsored murals.

The painting of those words was an act of government-sponsored defiance during President Donald Trump’s first term. The removal amounts to a public acknowledgement of just how vulnerable the District of Columbia is now that Trump is back in the White House and Republicans control both houses of Congress.

Bowser, a Democrat, ordered the painting and renamed the intersection Black Lives Matter Plaza in June 2020. It came after days of chaotic protests at that location following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer; Bowser had clashed with Trump over her handling of the protests.

But now Bowser has little power to fend off encroachments on D.C.‘s limited autonomy. Bowser said last week on X that, “The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference. The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern.”

Among those who gathered to witness the work Monday was Megan Bailiff, CEO of Equus Striping, the pavement marking company that originally painted the letters.

Bailiff called the dismantling of Black Lives Matter Plaza, “historically obscene” and said its presence was, “more significant at this very moment than it ever has been in this country.”

The far right celebrated the shift online, with conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk visiting the site to hail, “the end of this mass race hysteria in our country.”

In Trump’s second term, Bowser has worked to avoid conflict and downplay any points of contention. She traveled to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to meet with Trump after the election and has publicly emphasized their points of agreement.

Trump recently revived a frequent campaign talking point about wanting a federal “takeover” of the nation’s capital, describing Washington as being riddled with crime, graffiti and homeless encampments. Bowser has refused to comment on reports that the White House is preparing an executive order targeting Washington. She publicly said that the greatest threat to the so-called Home Rule autonomy was “some of the people in Congress.”

Congressional Republicans have repeatedly threatened to interfere in city affairs in large and small ways. A measure currently before Congress, named the BOWSER Act, seeks to completely revoke the Home Rule Act of 1973, which grants the capital city limited autonomy.

Article written by Ashraf Khalil.

Associated Press journalists Nathan Ellgren and Jacquelyn Martin contributed reporting.