Development staff began to dismantle the Black Lives Matter Plaza close to the White Home on Monday following threats by Republicans to chop transportation funding if the plaza was not renamed.
“You possibly can dig up concrete however you can’t erase historical past,” mentioned DC resident Dianne Bradley.
Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser modified the identify of the plaza in 2020 to Black Lives Matter Plaza, as a rebuke to President Trump, who had deployed hundreds of federal troops to town to counter individuals protesting the homicide of George Floyd by a police officer.
The renaming was criticised by the native chapter of the Black Lives Matter World Community, which referred to as it “a performative distraction from actual coverage adjustments”.