I knew right away that I would drive. Come to Washington, D.C., the editors had said; help us photograph the inaugural. We live in Minneapolis, 1100 miles from Washington, but the pandemic has kept me off planes for nearly a year now and at this moment in American life I wanted to see the places I was passing through. I wanted to stay off the interstates, to get out of the car whenever I needed to study something closer up. The morning I pulled out of our driveway, there was no question in my mind about my very first stop: Minneapolis’ 38^th Street and Chicago Avenue, which since last May has been known in this city as George Floyd Square.

It