January 2019 Lincoln Memorial confrontation

Country

United States

How it feels

This film examines a 2019 confrontation between a group of white high school students and a Native American activist at the Lincoln Memorial. It shows how initial viral videos sparked outrage and threats before later recordings added missing context to the encounter.

tensecontroversialunsettlingpolarizingsomberpublicmedia-drivenconfrontational

What happens

On January 18, 2019, a confrontation between groups of political demonstrators took place near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The interaction between white Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann and Native American activist Nathan Phillips was captured in photos and videos disseminated by major media outlets. Other recordings of the incident showed that initial media reports had omitted details. Reports of the incident triggered outrage in the United States, including calls to dox the students. The students received death threats and Covington Catholic High School temporarily closed due to fears for its students' safety. The short videos of the encounter that were uploaded to social media platforms received millions of views and were widely shared. At first, anger was focused on the students and the school, which, along with some of the students, received threats of violence. The incident was described by The New York Times as an "explosive convergence of race, religion and ideological beliefs" and a Vox editorial called it the "nation's biggest story". In February 2019, the Diocese of Covington released a report made by a private detective agency hired by the diocese and the high school, stating that the report exonerated the students. Covington students filed a number of multi-million dollar defamation lawsuits against news agencies. Nicholas Sandmann, the Covington student featured in most media coverage of the incident, settled lawsuits with CNN, The Washington Post, and NBCUniversal, though he lost his suits against The New York Times, CBS, ABC, Rolling Stone, and Gannett. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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