Three demonstrations — a protest against a Confederate monument outside Ridgefield, a march from the Fort Vancouver National Site to Vancouver City Hall and a Black Lives Matter rally in Esther Short Park — took place in Clark County on Friday, the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington.
The protest at Jefferson Davis Park, 24024 N.W. Maplecrest Road, began at 2 p.m. and lasted a few hours. As organizers had hoped, the “masks required, social distancing, peaceful event” attracted about 50 people. Some counterprotesters also arrived.
The 10,019-square-foot park features two stone markers that were originally part of a highway network meant to honor the Confederate president. The Sons of Confederate Veterans Pacific NW Division owns the land and placed the stones at the site in 2007.
Two 30-foot flag poles with Confederate symbols and a sign with a photo of Davis are also at the site.
Despite being a target of repeated vandalism in recent years, the organization has maintained that it doesn’t plan to remove the displays and has added additional security measures.
Protest organizers Philip Samwel and Donna Thompson previously worked together for C-Tran in Vancouver. Samwel, of Ridgefield, and Thompson, of Kalama, have often passed the park on their way to work.
They spread the word with help from a Facebook group called “Freedom of Assembly Ridgefield, WA.”
During the protest, they promoted a petition asking local officials to declare the park a public nuisance. Samwel said he was unsure if it the park would qualify, but “it sure seems like it would.”
“This monument needs to be removed,” Samwel said. “It’s a symbol of hate and racial injustice.”
Vehicles headed south on the freeway repeatedly honked horns. Some appeared to support the protesters, while others shouted obscenities at them or expressed support for the counterprotesters.
Samwel and Thompson arrived to the area about an hour early. They were initially outnumbered by SVC members who had arrived and stood watch Friday afternoon.
John Sigmon, an SVC chaplain who lives in Woodland, walked around the area with a leashed German Shepherd. He said he attended after receiving a tip that antifa would be present and cause damage, but he declined to specify how he learned that information.
“This is our park. I may not agree, but it’s their right,” Sigmon said of the protesters across the road.
Protesters stood across the road from the park and held several signs with messages like “Black Lives Matter,” “Stop the lynching” and “Good trouble.” Samwel, at one point, played the “I Have a Dream” speech from his cellphone, using a bullhorn to project the sound.
A few feet north on the dead-end, narrow road stood counterprotesters not affiliated with the SVC. They held American, Confederate and “Thin Blue Line” flags and wore attire supporting President Donald Trump. Some had guns in holsters.
Matt Matte, one of the counterprotesters, said he supported the monument and also wanted to protect private property.
“I wish it was a little bit easier to have a discussion,” Matte said of the interaction with protesters.
Some conflicting discussions took place, but the event remained peaceful.
Oletha Wade-Matthews moved to Vancouver with her fiance John Thompson. The Black couple said that they have dealt with racism regularly in their lives and viewed the monument as unwelcoming.
“I was like, ‘Really?’ We have this flag at this time in America?” Wade-Matthews said. “It hurts. The Confederates fought for slavery.”
While she was speaking, a man in a white pickup truck — featuring American flags and stickers supporting Trump and the QAnon far-right conspiracy theory — rolled slowly by and said, “All lives matter.”
“I can say, ‘All lives matter,’ ” Wade-Matthews replied. “Can you say, ‘Black lives matter?’ ”
The man didn’t respond to the request before driving away.
March from Fort Vancouver
A similar number of protesters marched through Vancouver later Friday afternoon to demand equal treatment for Black, Indigenous and people of color, or BIPOC.
The group gathered at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site — the same place that once served as a military training base to fight the Confederacy during the Civil War — and walked a mile to Vancouver City Hall. There, they used padlocks bearing the names of Black people killed by police to form an art installation.
A few speakers kicked off the event Friday afternoon, as protesters began to gather bearing “Black Lives Matter” signs.
Faith Lightsy, one of the STRIVE administrators, took to the megaphone and called on the mostly white crowd to use their privilege to speak out against injustice wherever they see it. That includes pushing back against people who try to justify extrajudicial killings of people of color by the police, Lightsy added.
“I need you to make calling out racism your new favorite pastime,” Lightsy said. “White people are innocent until proven guilty. Black people are guilty until proven innocent. Period.”
Kia Baker, a Black woman and a Navy veteran, spoke to the gathering crowd about how discrimination impacted her experience in the military.
“When I was serving, I don’t know anyone who did not at least witness some sexism, racism, sexual harassment, stalking and even rape. Even today, on our own bases, women are dying by their brothers in arms,” Baker said.
“Vanessa Guillen — if you don’t know her name, look it up. LaVena Johnson, in Afghanistan — it says that she killed herself, but if you see the report of what was done to her body, you know she did not,” Baker said. “These women of color died not fighting an enemy, (but) fighting for their lives from an enemy within their own ranks. This is part of the systemic change we’re all facing.”
Final march
Following the art installation, shortly after 6 p.m., the marchers made their way across the street to Esther Short Park. There, they joined a separately planned march “in solidarity with Jacob Blake and Kenosha, Wis.”
A Kenosha police officer shot Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in the back Sunday as he leaned into the driver’s seat of his SUV. Blake survived the shooting but is paralyzed, family attorney Ben Crump said.
Five students from Skyview High School organized the march, announcing it through several online platforms. The group had organized other demonstrations since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody and the shooting death of Breonna Taylor by police during the execution of a no-knock warrant in Louisville, Ky.
Marchers held signs and recited chants like, “This is what democracy looked like” as they proceeded a few blocks toward Mill Plain Boulevard.
“All the violence that’s going on in the world, and just collaborating with those who feel the same,” said Gracen Kaufman, one of the organizers.
