The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Massive protest fills D.C. streets
Demonstration against police brutality, racism one of city’s largest yet.
WASHINGTON — Legions of demonstrators streamed into downtown Washington on Saturday, bearing flags, hand-lettered signs and their children for one of the biggest local protests so far over police brutality and racial oppression in the United States.
They gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, where a solitary black man begged white people to see the world through his eyes, and a grandmother told her granddaughter that one day she would be proud she was present.
It was the ninth day of protests in the District of Columbia over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Large rallies unfolded across the District throughout the day, from the Lincoln Memorial, to Freedom Plaza, to Capitol Hill.
Demonstrators packed 16th street near the White House, marched along K street, and massed in Chinatown. They spilled onto an interstate highway.
They raised fists and bullhorns, appealed to history and vowed to be heard.
Lafayette Square, where a heavy security fence blocked any approach to the White House, a block away, was a focal point throughout the day.
Sixteenth Street, which District Mayor Muriel Bowser on Friday renamed “Black Lives Matter Plaza” and had the slogan painted on the asphalt in massive yellow letters, filled with a sea of people as far north as Thomas Circle.
Bowser visited the spot Saturday afternoon.
“I guess you told Trump about the yellow brick road!” a man called to her as she made her way down the street.
Flanked by five security guards sweating in suits, she posed for selfies until the organizer leading the crowd in chants announced her presence: “She’s a lady boss!”
“We would like to hear from you,” he said, handing the mayor the microphone.
“It is so wonderful to see everybody peacefully protesting — wearing your masks,” she began.
She called out the federal police’s actions Monday in front of “the people’s house,” saying today she “pushed the army away from our city.”
To cheers, she spoke of her 2-year-old daughter.
“I want to her grow up in a country where she is not scared to go to the grocery store, not scared to go to work,” she said. “Where she can grow up in an America where she can be a senator in the 51st state, Washington, D.C.”