Metro Rider Roswell Encina Recounts July 4 Encounter With Hundreds of Patriot Front Marchers
Updated
Updated · PBS NewsHour · Jul 10
Metro Rider Roswell Encina Recounts July 4 Encounter With Hundreds of Patriot Front Marchers
3 articles · Updated · PBS NewsHour · Jul 10
Summary
Roswell Encina, whose photo on a D.C. Metro train went viral, said he felt scared and tried to make himself smaller when masked Patriot Front members packed his car on July 4.
Hundreds of uniformed men from the white supremacist group were photographed marching through Washington during America’s 250th birthday celebrations, turning one of the day’s most shared images into a flashpoint.
Encina said racist online reactions have targeted both him and Bernita Bowlding, a Black woman also photographed among the riders, while dismissing the fear of being isolated in a confined space.
Encina, head of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society and the son of a U.S. Navy serviceman, said the images should spur civic dialogue about equality, belonging and what American democracy demands 250 years on.