Sex, Race and Religion Flood the Streets of Washington, DC Over MLK Weekend
Demonstrators at the Women's March in Washington, DC on January 19, 2019. (Photo: Susan Melkisethian/flickr/cc)
By Jo Freeman
Sex, race and religion marched through the streets of Washington, DC over the long holiday weekend dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King. There wasn’t much brotherly (or sisterly) love, which would have been a more fitting tribute to Dr. King’s memory; neither was there any physical violence, though there were some confrontations.
The Women’s March was so successful in 2017 that it has become an annual event. For the third march, protestors were urged to come to Washington DC again, this time on Saturday, January 19, but were told they could march at home if they preferred. By now there are enough local organizations to do just that.
Ironically, it followed by one day the March for Life, which has also become an annual event, held on a weekend near the January 22, 1973 decision by the Supreme Court to limit the state’s ability to restrict a woman’s access to abortion. (Roe v. Wade) It always meets on the Mall for an hour before marching to the Supreme Court.
This year it conflicted somewhat with a new event. The Indigenous People’s March met at the Dept. of Interior at 8:00 a.m. with prayers and songs. Afterward, participants marched to the Lincoln Memorial where there were some unpleasant encounters with other protestors.
As if this wasn’t enough, on Monday, DC held its 40th local march on MLK day, a long ways from the Mall. Mother nature was not kind to any of the marchers, as all four days were cold and grey, with intermittent rain.
NOW (National Organization for Women) asked sympathizers to join it on the Supreme Court sidewalk to hold up pro-choice signs while pro-lifers walked by. Feminists have been doing this for years, but this was the smallest counter-protest that I have (barely) seen. While walking around that sidewalk looking for them, I shot photos of the other signs. Even though I wasn’t wearing any signs or buttons myself, a purple-haired woman stuck her bullhorn into my face and shouted at me to stop taking photos. I pushed the bullhorn out of the way only to have another woman stick her face into mine and tell me I had violated the other woman’s personal space by touching her bullhorn.
Protestor (above) at Women's March, DC; credit:
I went to the end of the block and crossed the street. On the other side, I could see a few pro-choice signs facing the street; their backs to the Court. I also found a couple CodePinkers, who were only observing. I hadn’t intended to spend two hours shooting the March for Life (I’ve done that before) but I had such a good photo spot, with the Supreme court in the background, that I just stayed and clicked.
The US Capitol Police lined both sides of the street to keep anyone on the sidewalk from going into the street. They started doing that after Stop Patriarchy blocked the street in 2015 and 2016 just as the lead March for Life banner approached the Supreme Court. I chatted with one of the cops, who let me leave the curb long enough to take photos of some of the signs as they passed. I always came back to my spot.
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