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Jul 15, 2021 - Politics & Policy

White flags to be planted at National Mall as COVID memorial

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artist, Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, 61, of Bethesda, works on Tuesday October 20, 2020 .

Artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg plants flags on Oct. 20, 2020 to honor people who have died in the pandemic. Photo: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images

White flags will line the outside of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this September in memory of the more than 600,000 people who have died from COVID-19 in the United States, per a Thursday announcement.

The big picture: The project, titled "In America: Remember," initially began in 2020, when artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg planted 267,000 flags last fall to memorialize the death toll then.

  • The new installation will spread in front of sites like the White House, the Washington Monument and the Museum of African American History and Culture, according to the New York Times.

What they're saying: “The last thing I want to do is to have to buy any more flags,” Firstenberg said, per the NYT. “And the best way to do that is to get vaccinated.”

  • In regards to the memorial being planted beside the African American history museum, Fristenberg said, "Inequity is at the core of why communities of color have been disproportionately affected by this."
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