White supremacist group Patriot Front seen moving through Washington DC
In Washington, D.C., people wearing symbols of the white supremacist group Patriot Front were seen riding public transportation and marching to the beat of drums.
- Over the Fourth of July weekend, a photo of a black woman surrounded by members of the white supremacist group Patriotic Front on a subway train in Washington, D.C., went viral online.
- The woman’s brother said the photo “looked like hounds were surrounding her.” The Patriot Front website calls for a “hard reset” of the nation and describes “our people” as people of the “European race.”
- An ACLU attorney told USA TODAY that the photo symbolizes First Amendment freedoms. He said that while some people may be offended by the group’s beliefs, the First Amendment was created to protect such positions.
A photo of a Black woman surrounded by masked Patriot Front members on a July 4 subway train in Washington, D.C., went viral over the weekend, sparking a debate about the state of the country and freedoms on the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Reuters photographer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Cheney Orr captured the image of a woman, later identified as Bernita Bowling, 33, in a green shirt facing the camera while seated on a train. Two members of a white supremacist group, their identities concealed by masks, sunglasses and baseball caps, sit in front of her, and many others sit behind her or stand beside her.
According to Reuters, Orr and Reuters photographer Nathan Howard continued to document Patriot Front members exiting the train and heading to individual cars in New Carrollton, Maryland. Orr didn’t see where the bowling went.
Her brother, Paul Bowling, told The Washington Post in an interview that the photo “basically looked like hounds surrounding her.”
He described his sister as “amazing” and a “role model,” but outlined her mental health struggles and said he feared she would be targeted because of the photos that went viral, the paper said. He echoed those sentiments in a July 7 Instagram post, also acknowledging that “it’s your support that is making my sister go viral.”
Paul Bowling did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment.
Patriot Front was founded in the aftermath of the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. “Its mission is a hard reset of the nation we see today – a return to the traditions and virtues of our forefathers,” the group’s website says. It describes “our people” as those “born in this country who are our European race.”
Orr’s photo is a “dramatic” visual representation of First Amendment freedoms, Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel for the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, told USA TODAY on July 8.
He said Mr. Bowling and members of the Patriot Front had the right to ride the train as long as they followed applicable regulations, and that Mr. Orr had the right to take photographs.
“I think everyone was doing what they were allowed to do, and…you can look at it as a positive or a negative, but that’s life in a big city,” Spitzer said.
Spitzer acknowledged that the views of some groups, like the Patriot Front, can cause fear and anxiety in others, but said such positions are exactly what the First Amendment was designed to protect.
She pointed to other polarizing but protected forms of expression, such as anti-abortion protesters displaying graphic photos of fetuses near abortion clinics.
Spitzer also mentioned the ACLU of Washington, D.C.’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration on behalf of the protest group Accountability Now USA. The group accused the National Park Service of threatening to revoke demonstration permits over signs that referenced sexual misconduct allegations against Trump. A federal judge ruled against the administration in June, saying both the sign and the group’s 8647 flag were protected speech.
“People who exercise their First Amendment rights often make other people uncomfortable,” Spitzer said. “That’s where the rubber hits the road.”
Contributor: Michael Loria
Breanna Frank is USA TODAY’s First Amendment reporter. please contact her bjfrank@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded by the Freedom Forum in collaboration with our journalism funding partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
