Support the Wall of Moms in Portland, and join or start a local branch of Wall of Moms. Plus! A nod to the Wall of Dads movement, which also sprung to life during the Portland protests.
This is one of many posts we are devoting to the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Portland. We thought about doing it as one huge mega-post, but thought again and concluded it’s easier to digest if we break everything out into a series.
We realize in doing things this way, we run the risk that stories in the queue might be overtaken by events. We’re accepting that risk.
As of late July, Trump dispatched federal forces to the area, insisting that it’s out of control. (Spoiler alert: The people coming out are just protesting, aka exercising their First Amendment rights. Some are spraying graffiti on federal buildings.)
The arrival of outside forces only spurred still more Portlandians and Oregonians from surrounding areas to join the nightly protests, which have continued for more than 50 days–pretty much since the earliest public actions to decry the death of George Floyd.
Trump and his supporters have tried their damndest to depict the Portland protesters as thugs.
Portlandians themselves have deftly exposed the lie in many ways.
One of the sharpest and most pointed is Wall of Moms. These women began appearing in late July, clad in bike helmets and yellow shirts, and locking arms to form a wall against the cops and outside forces.
The website for Wall of Moms greets you with these words: All Mothers Were Summoned When He Called Out to His Mama.
This is a reference to the final minutes of George Floyd. Before he died, his neck pinned under the knee of a police officer for more than eight minutes, he cried out for his mother.
Images of the Wall of Moms typically show white women linking arms. In late July 2020, the group recruited people of color to take over and lead the group, in recognition of its goal to further the Black Lives Matter movement.
As we prepare this post, Wall of Moms chapters are spreading across America. Further down, we’ve included the Twitter handles for all the confirmed known groups as of late July.
We should also mention Wall of Dads, a related group that arose in Portland a few days after the Wall of Moms.
The Dads seem to have embraced the leaf blower, a tool first used by Hong Kong protesters to blow tear gas back at the forces that release it.
As of late July, the Wall of Dads hasn’t inspired branches outside of Portland, but here’s hoping that changes. Its Twitter handle appears after the info for the main Wall of Moms group.
See the Wall of Moms webpage, which belongs to the Portland, Oregon group:
Like Wall of Moms on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/979344492486725
Follow Wall of Moms on Twitter (again, this is the Portland, Oregon group):
@WallofMoms
Follow Bev Barnum, a founder of Wall of Moms, on Twitter:
@SocialDesignHI
Follow @WallofDads, Portland’s @PDXDadPod, and the #WallofDads hashtag to see what the Dad protesters are doing.
What follows is a list of Twitter handles for other Wall of Moms chapters across America, as of July 22, 2020.
Chicago, Illinois:
@WallofMomsChi
New York City, New York:
@WallofMoms_NYC
St. Louis, Missouri:
@StlWom
Denver, Colorado:
@wallofmomsden
Washington, D.C.:
@wallofmomsdc
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
@PhillyMomBloc
North Carolina (appears to be state-wide):
@WallofMomsNC
Michigan (again, appears to be state-wide):
@WOMforMI
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