 | This article needs to be updated.(September 2020) |
The Wall of Moms is a group primarily made up of women who identify as mothers, who have demonstrated in George Floyd protests in Portland, Oregon, as well as other groups in U.S. cities including Chicago, Seattle, [1] and Tampa, Florida. [2] The group's first protest was attended by approximately 40 women; hundreds to thousands have participated since then. [3] [4] [5]
Mothers, wives, and other female relatives have come together to protest state-sponsored violence and politicized police actions in multiple countries, including Argentina (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo), China (Tiananmen Mothers), Cuba (Ladies in White), Iran (Mourning Mothers, Mothers of Khavaran), Mexico (mothers of the disappeared), Russia (Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia), Sri Lanka (mothers of the disappeared), and Turkey (Saturday Mothers). [6] [7]
Portland's Wall of Moms has been described by some journalists as "a group of mainly white, suburban mothers", [8] but also "includes those who are nonbinary and people who consider themselves mothers". [1] Participants gained national attention for locking arms and chanting during local George Floyd protests. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben says the group demonstrates "the power of moms as activists". [1] The mothers are known for wearing yellow and acting as a barrier between federal agents and other demonstrators. The Catholic Sentinel and National Catholic Reporter have noted the participation by local Catholics. [9] [10]
Affectionate nicknames for the group include "MomBloc" and "Momtifa". [11] Some participants also carry sunflowers. [12]
Bev Barnum has been credited for creating the Facebook event for the initial protest. [3] The private Facebook group has approximately 17,000 members, as of July 26, 2020. [13]
On July 26, President Donald Trump tweeted, "The line of innocent 'mothers' were a scam that Lamestream refuses to acknowledge, just like they don't report the violence of these demonstrations!" [14]
Raffi released "Portland Moms" as a protest song in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and Wall of Moms, [13] [15] set to the tune of "Buffalo Gals". [16] He recorded the song with singer Lindsay Munroe and dobro player Ivan Rosenberg, after the idea struck him at 3am. According to Willamette Week 's Matthew Singer, "It's a short, simple folk jam, shouting out Black Lives Matter and the Wall of Vets in addition to the song's namesake, with a refrain nodding the nightly protests downtown." [17]
The BBC called the Wall of Moms "a good example of mainly middle-class, middle-aged white women explicitly not being Karens. Instead, the Wall of Moms are seen by activists as using their privilege to protest against the very same systemic racism and classism that Karens actively seek to exploit." [18]
The group inspired participation by similar groups such as "walls" of fathers (such as "DadBloc" or "PDX Dad Pod", a tongue-in-cheek reference to Dad bod, most known for wielding leaf blowers and wearing orange construction vests), ChefBloc (with pizza boxes), lawyers (Lawyers for Black Lives, in suits), nurses (in scrubs), teachers (Teachers Against Tyrants, in red or green shirts), and veterans (Wall of Vets). [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]
On July 27, 2020, the nonprofit organization Protect Democracy and Perkins Coie filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., on behalf of Wall of Moms, Don't Shoot Portland, and several individual protesters against the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Protective Service, the Department of Justice, and the heads of these federal agencies. [25] [26] [27] [28] Don't Shoot Portland and the Wall of Moms coordinated efforts during the protests, [3] and the suit alleges that the defendants "violated [plaintiffs'] constitutional rights, went beyond legal authority and were directed by someone not formally confirmed in their role". [27] [28] The suit also seeks to limit federal law enforcement to protecting federal property and to bar them from using specific actions, such as excessive crowd-control measures and custodial detentions without probable cause. [26] The case was ongoing as of January 5, 2021. [29] [ needs update ]
Edward Tevis Wheeler is an American politician who has served as the mayor of Portland, Oregon since 2017. He was Oregon State Treasurer from 2010 to 2016.
Chad Fredrick Wolf is a former lobbyist and former American government official who was named the acting United States secretary of homeland security in November 2019. His appointment was ruled unlawful in November 2020. Wolf was also the under secretary of homeland security for strategy, policy, and plans from 2019 to 2021.
Thompson Elk Fountain, also known as the David P. Thompson Fountain, David P. Thompson Monument, Elk Fountain, the Thompson Elk, or simply Elk, is a historic fountain and bronze sculpture by American artist Roland Hinton Perry. The fountain with its statue was donated to the city of Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1900 for display in Downtown Portland's Plaza Blocks. It is owned by the City of Portland.
Ammon Edward Bundy is an American anti-government militant and activist who led the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. He is the son of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was the central figure in the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada regarding unpaid grazing fees on federally-owned public land.
The Women's March on Portland, also known as the Portland Women's March, the Women's March on Washington, Portland, and Women's March Portland, was an event in Portland, Oregon. Scheduled to coincide with the 2017 Women's March, it was held on January 21, 2017, the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump. The march was one of the largest public protests in Oregon's history with crowd estimates as high as 100,000 participants. No arrests were made during the demonstration.
The March for Science Portland was a protest held in Portland, Oregon. This local protest was part of the March for Science, a series of rallies and marches in Washington, D.C., and over 600 cities across the world on April 22, 2017. Portland Science Advocates organized the march in support of science and to protest President Donald Trump's plan to cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health. Funding for the event, which cost approximately $30,000, was crowdsourced.
Patriot Prayer is a US far-right group founded by Joey Gibson in 2016 and based in Vancouver, Washington, a suburban city in the Portland metropolitan area. Since 2016, the group has organized several dozen pro-gun, pro-Trump rallies held in liberal cities in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. Often met with large numbers of counter-protesters, attendees have repeatedly clashed with left-wing groups in the Portland area. Far-right groups, such as the Proud Boys, have attended the rallies organized by Patriot Prayer, as well as white nationalists, sparking controversy and violence.
Joseph Owan Gibson is an American right-wing activist and the founder of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, which is active in Portland, Oregon and other cities within the Pacific Northwest.
#HimToo is a social movement supporting male victims of sexual assault and false rape allegations. This reaction to the MeToo movement started in October 2018 after a tweet from a mother about her son being afraid to date because of a climate of false rape allegations. It rose to greater prominence during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination. The #HimToo movement is seen as a response to the sexual assault allegations from the #MeToo movement.
Andy Cuong Ngo is an American right-wing author and social media influencer, who is known for covering and video-recording demonstrators. He is a journalist and editor-at-large for The Post Millennial, a Canadian conservative news website, and a regular guest on Fox News. Ngo has published columns in the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal.
The End Domestic Terrorism rally, sometimes subtitled "Better Dead Than Red", was a far-right demonstration organized by the Proud Boys and held in Portland, Oregon on August 17, 2019. The event, the purpose of which was to promote the idea that the "antifa" anti-fascist movement should be classified as "domestic terrorism", received national attention. The rally drew more counter-demonstrators than participants, with at least one group urging its members in advance not to attend, and ended with the Proud Boys requesting a police escort to leave.
Portland, Oregon has an extended history of street activism and has seen many notable protests.
Starting in May 2020, protests following the murder of George Floyd were held in the city of Portland, Oregon, concurrent with protests in other cities in the United States and around the world. By July 2020, many of the protests, which had been held every day since May 28, drew more than 1,000 participants. Protests continued into August, September, and October 2020, often drawing hundreds.
Teressa Raiford is an American activist and politician in Portland, Oregon. She founded the local Black-led non-profit Don't Shoot Portland.
In June 2020, the Trump administration began deploying federal law enforcement forces to select cities in the United States in response to rioting and monument removals amid the George Floyd protests. Federal law enforcement elements were deployed under Operation Legend, Operation Diligent Valor, and the Protecting American Communities Task Force (PACT). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cited an executive order regarding "monuments, memorials and statues" as allowing federal officers to be deployed without the permission of individual U.S. states, as the federal government "has the right to enforce federal laws, investigate crimes and make arrests" within states.
On August 29, 2020, Aaron Danielson, an American supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, was shot and killed after participating in a caravan which drove through Portland, Oregon, displaying banners and signs supporting President Donald Trump, and clashing with participants in the local George Floyd protests.
Many artworks related to the Black Lives Matter movement were created in Portland, Oregon, United States, during local protests over the murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans. Oregon Arts Watch contextualized the artistic works, stating that a "whitewashed pre-COVID lens" on American life, which obscured systemic racism, had been "cracked", and describing artists' response to racial violence being brought into the public eye was a "marathon, not a sprint".
A 4 foot bust of York, the only African American on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was installed in Portland, Oregon's Mount Tabor Park, in the United States, from February to July 2021. The artist stayed anonymous at first, but after the bust was removed he revealed himself as Todd McGrain. McGrain was a student of Darrell Millner, Portland State University professor of history and Black Studies. The bust appeared on February 20, replacing the statue of Harvey W. Scott, which had been toppled on October 20, 2020. McGrain did not seek city permission to install the bust, which McGrain expected to be temporary; on June 11 the city announced that it would remove the bust.
Moms United for Black Lives is an activist group based in Portland, Oregon, with branches in other U.S. cities, including New York and San Diego. The group was a fixture at the George Floyd protests in Portland; they wore yellow shirts, helmets, goggles, and gas masks, and they lead hundreds of people in chants as they marched to the federal courthouse.
The "Nightmare Elk" was a metal sculpture of an elk, temporarily installed in Portland, Oregon.
They stand arm-in-arm in between feds and protestors, forming a "wall" of protection and have inspired other protection groups to form, like the Wall of Vets and PDX Dad Pod.
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