A lone Black woman sits in a carriage on a Washington DC commuter train, on 4th July, surrounded by masked white supremacists from the Patriot Front on their way to march through the capital, carrying Confederate flags and demanding a white ethnostate.
The quiet dignity of the woman in the centre of the frame contrasts sharply with the faintly ridiculous looking masked men surrounding her, cosplay fascists afraid to show their faces – like small boys playing dress up. She knows that they despise her, and wish her harm, because she has committed the unforgiveable crime of having skin of a different colour.
But she remains impassive. I imagine she is fearful but is calling on all her inner strength not to show it. I hope that she got safely to wherever she was going.
This photo, taken by award-winning Reuters photographer Cheney Orr on the day that the USA commemorated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, has gone viral and it isn’t hard to see why. It conveys in a single image just how far away today’s United States has fallen from the famous statement made in that 1776 declaration:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
In reality the US has never lived up to that. The nation was built upon the genocide of the indigenous population and the enslavement of Africans. Even most of the founding fathers who signed that declaration owned slaves who enjoyed none of these rights. Slavery helped make America rich, but the subjugation of the Black population continued for a century after slavery’s abolition, and even today racism remains baked into the country’s DNA.
Since the election of the current administration under President Trump, hard-won civil rights for the black population have been rolled back and white supremacists have become emboldened, knowing they enjoy the support of many in the government. As masked ICE agents patrol US cities snatching mainly non-white people from the streets in search of illegal immigrants, many legal immigrants and even people of colour born in the US have found themselves targeted.
It’s all a far cry from the USA of a century go when the Port of New York was a traffic jam of ocean liners bringing millions of immigrants from all over the world, drawn by the invitation inscribed on The Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Most of the country is descended from those huddled masses referred to in that Emma Lazarus sonnet, The New Colossus. The USA was largely built by the toil and ambition of those immigrants, and many of their progeny went on to change the world and help ‘make America great’ in so many ways, from the Serbian born Nikola Tesla to Steve Jobs, the child of a Syrian immigrant. Even President Trump himself is the product of a German grandfather and Scottish mother.
However, it is also true to say that most of those immigrants who arrived by ship and were welcomed on Ellis Island came from predominantly white European countries. The USA has never been quite as welcoming to those from other parts of the world, although its doors (and wallets) have always been open for the world’s best, brightest and most talented, wherever they came from.
The melting pot that became the USA has led the world in creativity and innovation in the fields of music, cinema, fashion, sport, science, technology, literature, food and much more. Its contribution to the world’s culture has been immeasurable, despite the nation’s many flaws.
But now the ‘American Dream’ appears to be turning into a nightmare for many of its people, as the world’s wealth is sucked ever upwards and the angry poor look for easy scapegoats. The elites of course are only too happy to direct that anger downwards rather than upwards.
Cheney Orr’s powerful photo perfectly captures this depressing trend as it is playing out across the USA, but the story of misplaced hate that it tells is recognisable in many different countries around the world – including the UK where I live. Even in South Africa, where black far right groups are forming militias to attack black immigrants from other parts of Africa.
For this reason this most American of photos, taken on the 4th July, speaks to us all, and I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t win a Pulitzer Prize or World Press Photo Award. It certainly deserves one.
About the photographer
Photographer and journalist Cheney Orr was born in Arizona and raised in New York City. His first long-term photo essay documenting his dad’s journey with Alzheimer’s was published by The New York Times in 2018. He was awarded the Mary Ellen Mark Memorial Scholarship to study at the International Center of Photography and since then he has become a regular contributor to Reuters News, as well as Agence France-Presse, The Atlantic, Bloomberg News, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many others. Now based in Denver, his work has received numerous grants and awards, including a 2021 Pulitzer Prize nomination. See more of his work on his website.
Related reading:
- Don’t miss out on America’s largest Photography exhibition – FotoFocus Biennial 2026
- The best documentary photography and photojournalism revealed by World Press Photo
- On the USA’s 250th birthday, William Meyers’ sweeping 25-year visual record of New York City as a microcosm of America is simply remarkable
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