Cellphone video of clash between protesters and police at Lafayette Square park: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A digital video showing clashes between protesters and police officers at Lafayette Square park in Washington, DC, on June 1, 2020, following the death of George Floyd. The video was captured with an iPhone X cellphone and contains color and sound. In the opening frame, protesters can be seen at the intersection of H Street and 16th Street NW, separated from St. John's Episcopal Church by a line of U.S. Park Police officers. Some of the officers are on horseback and wear light blue shirts and light blue helmets. Other officers on foot, standing in front of the ones on horseback, wear darker uniforms and hold circular shields that have the word [POLICE] printed on them in large white uppercase letters. A third group of law enforcement officers, including several from the US Military Police Corps, can be seen in Lafayette Square park, to the far right. They wear camouflage uniforms and hold large cylindrical shields. On the opposite side of the street, the ground-floor windows of the Hays-Adams hotel are covered with ply board.

Many of the people in the crowd carry placards, some are kneeling, while others can be seen taking photographs and videos with cellphones and digital cameras. As the person holding the camera moves slightly to the left, a crying protester is revealed. He claims an officer stole his skateboard, laughed about it, and then pushed him. At 00:00:24, the officers holding circular shields charge the protesters. The crowd disperses and a few individuals are trampled in the commotion. At 00:00:37 an explosion can be heard and at 00:00:45 another explosion can be seen. Above the shouting and explosions someone can be heard saying, "They're shooting rubber bullets." The person holding the camera begins running, revealing a pile of food supplies on the ground just before the video comes to an end.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: June 1, 2020
• Recorded by: Darren Matthew Haynes, American
• Subject of: St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, American, founded 1816
• Subject of: United States Park Police, American, founded 1919
• Subject of: Military Police Corps, American, founded 1941
• Subject of: Unidentified Man or Men
• Subject of: Unidentified Woman or Women
• Type: digital media - born digital
• Type: sound films
• Type: color films (visual works)
• Medium: digital
• Dimensions: Duration: 00:01:02
• Dimensions: 58.89 MB
• Place filmed: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: Local and regional
• Topic: Police brutality
• Topic: Race relations
• Object number: 2021.79.2
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Darren M. Haynes and the Haynes Family
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Darren M. Haynes Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.