Photo credit: Jo Freeman
January 6 may become more than the anniversary of an attempted insurrection on the national Capitol. Last September, right-wing rallies demanded “Justice for J6.” Last week, left-wing rallies were held on January 6 in support of democracy. There were many small events all over the country.
In DC, roughly one hundred people gathered on the west side of the Capitol reflection pool. It was easy to keep a safe distance. Police presence was very light.
They listened to speeches on Our Freedoms, Our Vote for over an hour. Members of Congress held their own remembrance on the east side of the Capitol.
DC statehood was a sub-theme of the DC rally, reflected in the signs and the speeches.
A group calling itself “Proud Antifa Scum” hung out about fifty feet from the rally. Trump had applied that label to them after fights broke out in downtown DC the evening of November 14, 2020. His supporters had rallied in Freedom Plaza and marched to the Supreme Court several hours earlier. Long after the march had dispersed, some of Trump’s supporters weren’t ready to rest.
January 6, 2023 was a chilly day with winds that blew more fiercely than the rhetoric.
Jo Freeman is a feminist scholar and author.
Jo has finished her book Tell It Like It Is: Living History in the Southern Civil Rights Movement, 1965-66, and is looking for a publisher.
Copyright ©2023 Jo Freeman.
