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Oline Eaton

Oline Eaton (@oline_eaton, www.FindingJackie.com) researches American celebrity, trauma, feelings, first ladies, and feminism. She teaches writing at Howard University and NYU-DC, and would like to thank her Class of 2024 students at both institutions for the conversations in the Fall 2020 semester that helped shape this piece. Thank you also to Nanette OÕBrien and Melvin Jones.

“MATTER IS THE MINIMUM”: Reading Washington, DC’s BLM Memorial Fence

  In the early evening of Monday, 1 June 2020, following a weekend of national protests against the extra-judicial killings of Black people by the police, US federal troops aggressively moved on demonstrators outside the White House in Washington, DC.[1] Using flashbangs and chemical weapons, the US military forced demonstrators from the grounds of Lafayette Square Park, clearing the way for President Donald J. Trump to walk through the park and cross the street, so that he could have his photograph taken in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church whilst holding a Bible upside-down.   Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead (c) 2020 The following day, temporary non-scalable chain-link fencing was installed around the perimeter of the park—both physically and symbolically separating the populace from the President’s residence. The original fencing and concrete barricades were removed within weeks, only to be re-installed later that month, following protesters’ failed attempt to […]