AMERICANALMANAC (Charles McAdams) - A viral photo made her a civil rights symbol — then Virginia court records told a different story
A Reuters photograph captured on a Washington Metro train on July 4 turned a 33-year-old woman into an overnight icon of racial courage. Within days, social media users had compared the image to scenes from the 1960s civil rights movement. Then someone pulled her court records. The photograph, taken by freelance photographer Cheney Orr, showed […] The post A viral photo made her a civil rights symbol — then Virginia court records told a different story appeared first on American Almanac .
A Reuters photograph captured on a Washington Metro train on July 4 turned a 33-year-old woman into an overnight icon of racial courage. Within days, social media users had compared the image to scenes from the 1960s civil rights movement. Then someone pulled her court records. The photograph, taken by freelance photographer Cheney Orr, showed a Black woman seated alone on a Metro car while hundreds of masked Patriot Front members, wearing khaki pants, blue shirts, and white face coverings and carrying American and Confederate flags, crowded around her. The image spread fast across social media, drawing comparisons to sit-ins and Freedom Rides. Commentators used it to frame a broader argument about racism in America today. But the woman…Open