254 2 minutes read
In a small, conservative town in central Washington, sidewalk chalk has become a highly contentious issue between residents and the City Council. The situation came to a head time and time again in the spring and summer months of 2020. In one such confrontation, young adults and children writing “BLM” and other slogans in chalk on a suburban street were sprayed with a pressure washer by city workers.
This clear attack on free speech in general and the Black Lives Matter movement in particular eerily echoed images of civil rights activists attacked with fire hoses during the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century. Over the summer, it became clear to Selah residents that the city administration had every intention to crush this uprising and enforce the status quo of racism and repression.