Black Lives Matter Plaza: 2020-2025

News crews and onlookers gather as city employees begin to dismantle Black Lives Matter Plaza.

Two weeks ago, I gave what was I thought could possibly my last tour ever at Black Lives Matter Plaza. A group of college students from Pennsylvania wanted to see the plaza before its potential removal, which they had read about in the news before their DC trip. At the time, that meant the plaza could cease to exist as early as the next day, which was Monday, March 10.

Indeed on the morning of March 10, Black Lives Matter Plaza was cordoned off and workers began the process of deconstructing the mural and roadway. Even the Black Lives Matter street signage came down.

It was a stunning development that came together in less than one calendar week, undoing a five year statement piece of art that also happened to be a part of the built environment.

The mural was created by the city in 2020 and updated to a more semi permanent footprint in 2021.

The original mural was commissioned by Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser in June of 2020. After nationwide protests over police brutality reached DC, protesters were met with aggressive and violent pushback from the state (local police and federal forces). The most egregious and violent clashes took place near the White House in the area of 16th Street NW and Lafayette Square. The mayor commissioned the mural on June 5, 2020 and instructed the Department of Public Words to paint the words "Black Lives Matter" in huge 35 foot tall letters over the 800 and 900 blocks of 16th Street NW. Those two blocks had already been temporarily closed to auto mobile traffic since major protests broke out in DC.

The next spring, in May of 2021, the mural was altered to make it semi-permanent, as the roadway was transformed to create a pedestrian walkway in the center, leaving just two lanes for motor vehicles --one in each direction. In addition, stonework and decorative bricks were added to the roadway to frame the newly repainted words "Black Lives Matter Plaza."

Over the years, I would occasionally get a requests to visit the two block stretch, all the way up to the last group of college students from Pennsylvania.

For years, local leaders in DC have feared the intrusion of the federal government into DC affairs. As a reminder, the District of Columbia is a federal territory and DC's limited "Home Rule" is just 50 years old and enabled by Congress.

In March 2025 a Congressional Representative from Georgia introduced a bill that threatened to withhold some federal funding from DC if city leadership did not change the name of Black Lives Matter Plaza to "Liberty Plaza," remove the mural physically, and remove all references to Black Lives Matter Plaza in official documents.

The Mayor caved surprisingly quickly; indicating that the city would comply with, what was then, just a suggestion.

The next Monday, just hours after my final tour there, city workers began dismantling Black Lives Matter Plaza -- 3 months short of its 5th birthday.

Original iteration of Black Lives Matter Plaza, June 2020.

Gathering at Black Lives Matter Plaza October 2020.

Street signage for Black Lives Matter Plaza, November 2020.

A Minor Landmark

Strolling through Adams Morgan you can see the neighborhood has many disparate forms regarding the built environment. A big part of its identity is commercial -- restaurants, bars, and retail, mostly along 18th Street NW south of Columbia Road. The eastern part of Columbia Road itself is known for staple service businesses such as pharmacies, groceries, urgent care, a few banks, and even a veterinarian. Columbia Road west and Kalorama Road are known for their large, impressive multi-unit residential buildings that lead right into Dupont Circle.

Along Calvert Road, a homey vista of attached row houses line the curved thoroughfare all the way up to the Duke Ellington Bridge. When I first moved to DC I was living in nearby Mount Pleasant. This stretch of Calvert Street (1800 & 1900 blocks) was mostly known to me and my friends as group houses and party houses.

1929 Calvert Street NW (the white house)

To that extent, it makes a lot of sense that it was one of these houses hosted the first ever show for Minor Threat, one of DC's and punk music's seminal bands.

In December 1980, the newly formed band Minor Threat opened for another legendary DC band, Bad Brains, in the basement of 1929 Calvert St NW in Adams Morgan. The Minor Threat kids weren't complete unknowns as two of the members had already played in the popular Teen Idles, which broke up earlier that year. And they were kids -- Teen Idles was formed from a group of students enrolled in nearby Wilson High School.

Photo © Susie Josephson Horgan. Minor Threat early show.

Minor Threat continued an on-again off-again existence until permanently disbanding in the summer of 1983. Along the way songs like "Straight Edge" and EP's like "Out of Step" connected with DC punk kids and even more outside of the capital city. With the band members going on to be a part of even longer lived bands such as Fugazi, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty, and many others, the importance and influence of Minor Threat has been amplified over the decades.

Today the Calvert Street house is just... a house. No fanfare, no signage, just another row house in Adams Morgan. But the house will be part of a private tour I am writing for a client this spring. If all goes well, I may consider a permanent Adams Morgan tour based on music and social activism! It's a strong possibility.

Monday Photos

Exhibition Spotlight: The Jewish Comics Experience

Full disclosure: I am not a diehard comics reader or collector as an adult. I was a big X-Men fan as a kid. I collected in order to read fun stories and was also convinced by adult comic book store owners that one day I would get rich "investing" in first editions (I did not get rich). As an adult I usually waited to buy anthologies on Comixology when they were on sale. But then the company was purchased by Amazon and they just folded it into Kindle, and... I digress. Honestly, it's just not as fun reading them on an tablet or phone screen.

All that goes to say, I was really excited to see comics as the main story in the newest exhibition at the Capital Jewish Museum, JewCE: The Jewish Comics Experience. Of course as an adult I enjoy deciphering the meta-meaning in comics. The recent TV show X-Men '97 not so blatantly made lots of parallels between discrimination, segregation, and oppression happening to characters on screen with what is and has happened in the real world. The metaphors for the struggle of marginalized communities were nuanced and made the show compelling to watch, even for being "just a cartoon."

I mention the X-Men cartoon television show, because the basis is obviously the X-Men paper comics. That world was initially co-created by Stanley Martin Leiber, also known as Stan Lee. Alongside Lee, Moses Goodman, Hyman Simon, and Jacob Kurtzenburg (aka Jack Kirby) paved the way for the company now known as Marvel Comics to become one of, if not the top venues for storytelling though comic books in the world. Those histories and more are explored in the Jewish Comics Experience, which covers 100+ years of Jewish cartoons, comics, and graphic novels (for the purposes of this post, I'm just referring to all of those as comics).

The exhibition highlights Jewish comic writers, illustrators, and characters -- the obvious and subtle. At the same time, displays track the evolution of some of the most universally beloved characters like the X-Men, Superman, and Fantastic Four.

"Comedy" makes you laugh, but often the stories told with paper and color ink evolved from strictly fun comedic tales into stories that featured more serious content with sustained adventures featuring ongoing main characters. The Captain America comic book cover featuring a literal punch out of Hitler is as real as it gets. But even before the U.S. entered World War II, Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster developed Superman, a crusader for the innocents, in 1938. A character that is still beloved and among the most known comic superheroes of all time. To note: the Superman character has a new movie to be released in summer 2025. The legacy lives on. Comics aren't always "an escape." Nor just a coping mechanism. But the content within help shape, and are shaped by human consciousness, feelings, and experiences.

Onomatopoeia stylings abound in this exhibition space, and the exhibition art & signage really sets the tone for the subject matter. Clearly the exhibition designers borrowed from the comic book cannon of lettering, colors, and typeface. An interactive gallery at the end of the exhibition is titled Superhero Headquarters. Here, even the museum's youngest visitors can use props and costumes to imagine themselves as a character (hero? or perhaps villain???). For the more pen-to-paper types, there is a storyboarding prompt with a little inspiration for the creative folks that visit the museum and are ready to make art right now.

JewCE: The Jewish Comics Experience is open through March 23, 2025. As a special exhibition, admission is $10. General admission to the Capital Jewish Museum (without tickets to JewCE) is free. The other main exhibitions, What is Jewish Washington? and Connect. Reflect. Act, are very, very good and should be part of any visit. 575 3rd Street NW.

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Autumn in Northeast DC

Exploring the Union Market area of Northeast DC.