January 6, 2021

On January 6, 2021 a violent mob broke into the United States Capitol in an effort to halt the certification of the electoral vote and overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump. The insurrection was unsuccessful. But its echoes continue to reverberate today. Monroe Gallery photographers recorded the shocking storming of the Capitol on January 6, the resulting lock-down of the Capitol grounds, and the eventual inauguration of President Biden.

"The rioters lost, and so did Mr. Trump, who had summoned them to Washington and urged them to march to the Capitol. The Trump era seemed to have ended in one of the most disgracefully anti-American acts in the nation’s history. That day was indeed a turning point, but not the one it first seemed to be. It was a turning point toward a version of Mr. Trump who is even more lawless than the one who governed the country in his first term. It heralded a culture of political unaccountability, in which people who violently attacked Congress and beat police officers escaped without lasting consequence. The politicians and pundits who had egged on the attack with their lies escaped, as well. The aftermath of Jan. 6 made the Republican Party even more feckless, beholden to one man and willing to pervert reality to serve his interests. Once Mr. Trump won election again in 2024, despite his role in encouraging the riot and his many distortions about it, it emboldened him to govern in defiance of the Constitution, without regard for the truth and with malice toward those who stand up to his abuses." -The New York Times

"...it feels like there’s no sense of where people are going. No idea where the chambers are. I have no idea- it’s my first time in here, like it is for most of the insurectionists too. And then they’re moving through the hallways, and the front group stops. I walk into the scene and there’s one police officer, standing there, shouting at them. He’s telling them to stop, they’re telling him to move, they move towards him and he grabs at his pistol. I see him unclip the holster for his weapon and I make sure there’s a protester between me and him - ten inches of flesh should be enough to stop a 9mm I figure and keep working.But incredibly this officer–an African American man being confronted by scores of white nationalists, one of them actually carrying a Confederate flag, others in helmets and armor, some of them with spears and bats–shows restraint. He threatens and he shouts, and he points and screams and holds his ground, and talks into a small radio on his shirt. And then he runs up the stairs. The group follows, and they round the stairs, and follow him into a room with more officers…His name, I would later learn, was Eugene Goodman. He acted as a diversion to draw rioters away from the Senate chamber. There weren't many moments that we can be proud of as a nation from Jan. 6, 2021, but this is one of them." –Ashley Gilbertson