George Floyd protests: who is Muriel Bowser, the ‘unbossed’ Washington mayor challenging Donald Trump?
- Bowser, who has sparred with Trump over his belligerent response to the unrest, renamed an area near the White House ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza’
- For his part, the president denounced her as 'incompetent'
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has drawn a battle line right up to the White House.
Bowser, one of seven black female mayors of America’s 100 largest cities, on Friday declared a small but symbolic patch of the US capital – a section of 16th Street bounded by a church on one side and Lafayette Square opposite the White House on the other – “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
The Democratic mayor then had the District of Columbia’s departments of transport and public works paint giant yellow letters spelling “Black Lives Matter” followed by the city’s flag on the street spanning two city blocks leading to plaza. To finish, Bowser posted on Twitter a video taken from a nearby roof showing the White House overlooking the results.
“There are people who are craving to be heard and to be seen,” Bowser told a news conference, “and to have their humanity recognised, and we had the opportunity to send that message loud and clear on a very important street in our city.”
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Glynda Carr, president and chief executive of Higher Heights for America PAC, a political action committee dedicated to helping more liberal black women win elective office, said Bowser “showed the world that she leads, unbought and unbossed.” Carr’s organisation has never raised money for Bowser.