Analysis: Breaking down the full video with Covington Catholic students
Sarah BrookbankDisclaimer: The videos in this article contain strong and racially-charged language that may offend some viewers.
CINCINNATI – Video of an incident in Washington, D.C., on Friday involving Covington Catholic High School students, Native American marchers and Black Hebrew Israelites has sparked intense debate about how, exactly, the encounter played out.
Accounts of the episode vary widely and the question of each party's intent has been hotly contested. In an effort to establish a timeline, The Enquirer has reviewed video, shot from different angles, and paired it with interviews and other information to help bring clarity to what transpired.
Multiple groups merge at The Lincoln Memorial
The March for Life, for which the Covington Catholic students traveled to Washington, started at 10 a.m. Friday and featured music and a rally. At 1 p.m., the march itself began, ending outside the Supreme Court and Capitol Building. The March for Life events were scheduled to end around 3 p.m.
The Indigenous Peoples March occurred from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The rally portion of the event started at 11 a.m. and lasted until 5 p.m., according to a flyer for the event. The rally took place on Henry Bacon Drive, near the Lincoln Memorial.
Jan. 22:Covington Catholic: Rally held at diocese as incident seen as 'opportunity for growth'
Jan. 22:What to know about Black Hebrew Israelites, the group in that Covington Catholic video
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The Capitol Building and Lincoln Memorial are on opposite sides of the National Mall, approximately 2.5 miles apart.
5 p.m. Friday
According to a Detroit Free Press interview with Nathan Phillips, the indigenous man surrounded by students in the video that sparked the outcry, the incident occurred after 5 p.m., when the Indigenous Peoples March ended.
Nick Sandmann, the Covington Catholic High School student shown in the video in front of the Native American activist, said in a lengthy statement issued Sunday night: "I arrived at the Lincoln Memorial at 4:30 p.m. I was told to be there by 5:30 p.m., when our busses were due to leave Washington for the trip back to Kentucky. We had been attending the March for Life rally, and then had split up into small groups to do sightseeing."
What the video shows
The initial video, which quickly went viral, showed Sandmann, in a "Make America Great Again" hat, standing very close to and staring at Phillips while Phillips played a drum and chanted. They were surrounded by a larger group of students whose chants drowned out the Native American man.
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That video alone only tells part of the story.
A separate video that surfaced over the weekend shows a preceding encounter between the students and a small group of Black Hebrew Israelites, who were also at the Lincoln Memorial.
Occurs at 10:53
In this video, apparently shot by one of the Black Hebrew Israelites, the group of men is seen arguing and talking with a number of people who appear to be involved in the Indigenous Peoples March.
The group of Black Hebrew Israelites also interacted with people who were walking around the area between the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool.
A large group of people gathered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial behind the Black Hebrew Israelites, as one of the members continues to shout at the crowd. It is not clear from the videos when the Covington Catholic students entered the crowd.
The man then turned around to address the large crowd gathered on the steps.
"A bunch of babies made out of incest," the man said. "You worship blasphemy."
According to Phillips, the Covington Catholic students were observing the Black Israelites talk and started to get upset at their speeches.
At one point the students started a chant, similar to what you would hear from the student section of a pep rally.
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Occurs at 1:08:30
A student walked down the stairs, took off his jacket and shirt, which caused the students to yell and jump around. They started a small chant, with the shirtless boy leading the group. The student then put his shirt back on and went back into the crowd.
The man filming the video said "do you see who the real caveman is now?"
"When we arrived, we noticed four African American protestors who were also on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial," Sandmann said in his statement. "I am not sure what they were protesting, and I did not interact with them. I did hear them direct derogatory insults at our school group."
Shortly after that, the students started jumping around and chanting the opening of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army."
According to Sandmann: "Because we were being loudly attacked and taunted in public, a student in our group asked one of our teacher chaperones for permission to begin our school spirit chants to counter the hateful things that were being shouted at our group. The chants are commonly used at sporting events."
Occurs at 1:12:22
The video then shows Phillips approaching, beating his drum, while the students were sitting down.
Jan. 20:Fuller video casts new light on Covington Catholic students' encounter with Native American elder
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Phillips said he was trying to defuse the situation, according to a Detroit Free Press interview.
Phillips said some of the members of the Black Hebrew Israelites were "saying some harsh things" and that one member spit in the direction of the Catholic students.
"So I put myself in between that, between a rock and hard place," he said.
"They were in the process of attacking these four black individuals," Phillips told the Detroit Free Press. "I was there and I was witnessing all of this ... As this kept on going on and escalating, it just got to a point where you do something or you walk away, you know? You see something that is wrong and you're faced with that choice of right or wrong."
None of the videos show students attacking the Black Hebrew Israelites.
As Phillips and two other men entered the crowd of students, they circled him and began clapping and cheering. A student with a "Make America Great Again" hat stood in front of Phillips. The two were nearly touching as Phillips sang and beat his drum. The students shouted and chanted with the beat, laughing.
“I started going that way, and that guy in the hat stood in my way and we were at an impasse," Phillips told The Washington Post. "He just blocked my way and wouldn’t allow me to retreat."
"I did not see anyone try to block his path," Sandmann said in his statement. "He locked eyes with me and approached me, coming within inches of my face. He played his drum the entire time he was in my face. I never interacted with this protestor. I did not speak to him. I did not make any hand gestures or other aggressive moves."
The encounter winds down
Phillips was joined by others, likely from the Indigenous Peoples March. One of those men, wearing a red hat, talked to students as they begin to break apart.
The man in the red hat said to an apparent student, "go back to Europe where you came from. This is not your land." He told the student to get out of his face. The student responded by saying "let's go all the way back to Africa."
Sandmann backed up and motioned to the other student who was arguing with the man in the red hat. After that, the crowd of Covington Catholic students began to separate.
Jan. 20:Native American veteran: 'Mob mentality' in students seen in viral video was 'scary'
Starts around 4:00 in below video
Phillips is then seen talking to the crowd, motioning toward the students, who stayed in the area between the Indigenous people and the Black Hebrew Israelites.
A man with the Black Hebrew Israelites began shouting about "sodomy" and "homosexuals." The students interacted with the man and someone off camera told the students to step back.
The man with the Black Hebrew Israelites told students that Donald Trump kissed Rudy Giuliani while Giuliani was in drag. "Your president is a homosexual," he said.
"Who cares. That's homophobic," a student said back.
After a few minutes, an apparent student asked "are the buses here yet?"
A few minutes later the students ran off, chanting "let's go home."
Racial slurs and 'Get Out'
Another video of interactions between students and the Black Hebrew Israelites made the rounds on social media, showing the men addressing a black student in the crowd with racial slurs.
The man with the Black Hebrew Israelites proceeded to make references to "Get Out," a horror movie about a black man who learns a disturbing secret when he meets his white girlfriend's family.
It's unclear when this video takes place.
The man in the video says "get out" and uses a racial slur, to which the crowd of students responds with surprise. One student yells, "Why are you being mean?"
Follow Sarah Brookbank on Twitter: @SarahBrookbank