WASHINGTON — A widely shared photograph captured a stark scene on a DC train: a Black woman seated amid masked members of a white supremacist group as they arrived in the nation’s capital on July 4.
Freelance photographer Cheney Orr took the image during the 250th Independence Day observance, a moment some viewers have described as a troubling reflection of the country’s ongoing struggle to fulfill its founding ideals.
The woman in the photo has not been publicly identified, and it remains unclear whether she had any interaction with Patriot Front members during the ride.
Hundreds of Patriot Front members traveled to Washington wearing masks, khakis, sunglasses and hats. Some carried upside-down American flags, while others displayed Confederate flags as they marched through the city.
Videos from the demonstration showed participants chanting phrases including, “Life, liberty, victory!” and “Reclaim America!”
Counterprotesters responded with jeers. In one clip, a man using a bullhorn shouted, “Every single one of you justifies the f–king right to abortion!”
Patriot Front, described as a neo-fascist organization, was founded by Thomas Rousseau in 2017 after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., where counterprotester Heather Heyer was killed when a man drove his car into a crowd.
The organization has been characterized as one of the country’s most prominent white supremacist groups and is believed to have more than 200 members. It claimed that roughly 400 demonstrators gathered in DC.
Patriot Front’s goal is to transform America into a white ethnostate and usher in “a hard reset on the nation we see today — a return to the traditions and virtues of our forefathers,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Critics have pointed out that the group fights against core American values.
Its members have spewed antisemitic, racist and other hateful propaganda across the US. Many of them also have a rap sheet.
In 2022, for example, dozens of members were arrested on accusations of inciting a riot for the group’s planned demonstration at a gay-pride parade in Idaho.
Top officials noted that despite the group’s vile behavior, it still enjoys America’s free-speech protection.
“Certainly, what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with. But one of the foundational principles of the United States, which makes democracy messy, is free speech,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum told CNN’s “State of the Union on Sunday.
