List of street murals painted in response to the murder of George Floyd
On June 5, 2020, during the
George Floyd protests, the DC Public Works Department painted the words "
Black Lives Matter" in 35-foot-tall (11 m) yellow capital letters on 16th Street NW on the north of
Lafayette Square, part of
President's Park near the White House, with the assistance of the MuralsDC program of the
DC Department of Public Works, with the
DC flag accompanying the text.[1][2][3] Multiple other cities across the United States, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom, subsequently painted their own "Black Lives Matter" murals.
Alabama
Birmingham – "Black Lives Matter" was painted in yellow along First Avenue South in the Parkside District.[4] On June 22, the city council did not vote on whether to rename part of Sixteenth Street North to "Black Lives Matter Boulevard", due to urging from local activists.[5]
Hobson City – On June 19, residents painted "Black Towns Matter" using yellow and red road paint along Martin Luther King Boulevard and plan to later paint "Black Lives Matter" along another section of the street.[6]
Mobile – On June 21, "Black Lives Matter" was painted in yellow along Conti Street downtown.[7] Rain washed away the mural the following day.[8]
Berkeley – On June 9, in response to the Oakland mural, the city council of nearby Berkeley approved painting "Black Lives Matter" on a street in front of the city hall, after students painted a similar street mural in front of
Berkeley High School.[11]
La Jolla – On June 14, faculty members from the UCSD Visual Arts Department began discussing a Black Lives Matter mural. On June 15, students, along with 3B Collective, faculty, and students, painted a 110-foot-long "Black Lives Matter" in yellow paint. [14]
Fresno – On June 18, "Black Lives Matter" was painted in yellow along P Street in front of
Fresno City Hall and the city council declared the day "Black Lives Matter Day".[15]
Los Angeles – On August 31, 2020, the City of Los Angeles completed its first official and permanent All Black Lives Matter on-street
public art mural by Luckie Alexander in the center lane of Hollywood Boulevard on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame, replacing an earlier unofficial All Black Lives Matter on-street mural and paying tribute to transgender people of color.[16] The earlier mural was painted by volunteers on June 13, 2020, at the same site in conjunction with the June 14, 2020, All Black Lives Matter march.[17]
Martinez – On July 5, the words "Black Lives Matter" were painted in front of the Contra Costa County courthouse in downtown Martinez. The mural was defaced the day it was painted and was never restored.[18]
Oakland – On June 7, residents and community groups painted "Black Lives Matter" along three blocks of 15th Street in downtown Oakland.[19][20]
Oakland – On July 1, The Queer Healing Arts Center, 14 artists and over 250 community members - under the direction and design of the Queer Healing Arts Center's founder artivist Kin Folkz, artist Nkosi Smith and Imani Smith - painted a powerful mural in honor of Black Trans and Queer Lives that reads "ALL BLACK TRANS, QUEER, NON-BINARY, WOMEN, DISABLED, IMPRISONED LIVES MATTER" along seven blocks of Bellevue Ave/Lakeside Park Road at Lake Merritt (from Fairyland to the Lake Merritt Boathouse) in downtown Oakland.[21][22]
Palo Alto – On June 30, up to 16 Bay Area artists will paint a temporary "Black Lives Matter" mural along Hamilton Avenue in front of city hall.[23]
Richmond – More than 200 community members painted "Black Lives Matter" in yellow along Nevin Avenue in front of the city hall, with each letter measuring 10 by 11 feet (3.0 m × 3.4 m).[24]
San Jose – On July 4, an anonymous resident painted "Black Lives Matter" across three blocks of East Empire Street as part of an organized protest against the 2016 killing of Anthony Nunez by police. The city did not have a process for approving street murals.[27][28]
Stockton – On June 19, volunteers from across Northern California painted "Black Lives Matter" in the pan-African colors along a street in front of
Victory Park.[29]
Tallahassee – On July 8, "Black Lives Matter" was painted at the intersection of Gaines Street and on Railroad Avenue.[36]
Georgia
Atlanta – Overnight on June 19, artists painted "Black Lives Matter" in yellow along the
Eastside Trail.[37]
Illinois
Chicago – Catalpa Avenue in the Andersonville neighbourhood was painted with BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER by 22 artists, it was organised by Andersonville Chamber of Commerce and Ald. Andre Vasquez.[38]
Evanston — Over the July 4 long weekend 2020, the public high school’s girls and boys basketball teams received city approval for the mural at right. It covers three city blocks on Dodge Avenue in front of the high school — 1700 Dodge. See photos. By the morning of the second day of its existence, someone had defaced it with white paint likely thrown from a vehicle at a high speed. It remains intact through June 30, 2021.
Oak Park – From June 24 to 27, "Black Lives Matter" will be painted in multiple colors measuring 130 by 12 feet (39.6 m × 3.7 m) along Scoville Avenue.[39]
Naperville – A group of girls students see two young African American siblings put "Black live matter" shaped heart on a restaurant board and decide to help them, but some people were angry at them as a man is heard saying to the two group "This is a good city and you want to ruin it!" as the man continue to berate the girls and the two young African American siblings, a white woman is seen ripping the hearts as her boyfriend also berated the group after they flipped them out and say "Only white have privilege to live not black" and they leave but the rest of the community show their support to Black live matter by putting their own BLM shaped hearts.[40]
Indiana
Indianapolis – According to the Indianapolis Star, Indy10 Black Lives Matter coordinated a mural painting event with other community organizations, activists, and artists from August 1 to 2, 2020. The street mural was permitted by the
Indianapolis City-County Council in a resolution against racism.[41] Each letter or symbol in the street mural was painted by a single Black artist. The
street mural was painted on
Indiana Avenue, between the Indianapolis Urban League and
Madam Walker Legacy Center.[42] The mural was defaced on August 9, 2020.[43]
Cambridge – On June 16, local artists began painting "Black Lives Matter" along Race Street near the
Harriet Tubman Museum. The mural is expected to last about a year.[46][47]
Salisbury – "Black Lives Matter" was painted in blue, yellow, and green (the City of Salisbury's colors) along a Broad Street sidewalk. Broad Street was renamed to Black Lives Matter Boulevard on June 19.[48]
Detroit – On June 17, local artists and students painted "
Power to the People" in black and white along Woodward Avenue.[49]
Flint – On June 14, several community organizations painted "Black Lives Matter!" on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.[50]
Jackson – On June 14, "Black Lives Matter" was painted in
Pan-African colors along High Street near Elnora Moorman Plaza and a house listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book.[51] "Black Lives Matter" was also painted in yellow along West Washington Avenue.[52]
Lansing – A local activist painted "Black Lives Matter" in 4-foot-tall (1.2 m), yellow and white lettering along Capitol Avenue.[54]
Minnesota
Minneapolis – On July 18, the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery coordinated the painting of "Black Lives Matter" in 24-foot (7.3 m)-high letters on the street outside the museum, along Plymouth Avenue North between Newton and Penn avenues. 16 artists participated, each designing one letter.[55]
Mississippi
Hattiesburg – On June 12, residents painted "Black Lives Matter" along Mobile Street using temporary yellow paint.[56]
Moss Point – On June 20, officials painted "Black Lives Matter" and the movement's fist logo on the street in front of city hall.[57]
Missouri
Florissant – From June 19 to 21, activists attempted three times to paint "Black Lives Matter" in 12-foot-tall (3.7 m) white lettering along North Lindbergh Boulevard in front of the police department, but the city painted over the mural and arrested two activists for violating a local ordinance against street painting.[58][59]
Kansas City – On September 5, six massive "Black Lives Matter" murals were painted across the city. Each mural was designed by a Black artist as part of a project called KC Art on the Block, is highly detailed, and covers the street for the length of at least one block. USA Today said it "may be the largest project of its kind", totaling a span of 2,000 feet (610 m).[60] Some were enhanced in response to vandalism.[61]
New Jersey
Atlantic City – In September it was agreed the paint a mural at the city's Civil Right Park and not the Boardwalk.[62]
Elizabeth – On August 2, a "Black Lives Matter" mural at MLK Plaza across from City Hall was dedicated, with George Floyd's brother, Terrence Floyd, and Eric Garner's mother, Gwendolyn Carr, in attendance.[63]
Highland Park – On June 18, volunteers painted "Black Lives Matter" on South 5th Avenue across from the police and fire departments and borough hall.[64]
Orange Township – Mayor Dwayne D. Warren, Esq., Councilwoman-at-Large Adrienne Wooten and South Ward Councilwoman Jamie Summers-Johnson participated with the community to unveil its Black Lives Matter mural to the public. Painted on Main Street on Aug. 8, the mural has been receiving rave reviews.[66]
New York
Albany – A community advocacy group painted "Black Lives Matter" in yellow along Lark Street, one of the city's busiest streets.[67] Albany Common Council renamed Livingston Park to Black Lives Matter Park.[68]
Buffalo – A proposed resolution in
Buffalo Common Council would rename Fillmore Avenue to "Black Lives Matter Way".[69] D'Youville College commissioned mural named "Black Matter is Life" be painted by
Maxx Moses on their campus off of Porter Avenue.[70]
Rochester – On June 11, volunteers painted "Black Lives Matter" along Court Street in blue, 37+1⁄2-foot-tall (11.4 m) lettering with the Black Lives Matter movement's fist logo on one end and Rochester's Flower City logo on the other end.[73]
Schenectady – On June 23, "Black Lives Matter" was painted in yellow along Jay Street in front of the city hall.[74]
Syracuse – A local attorney obtained a permit to paint "Black Lives Matter" on a street in front of the city hall.[75]
North Carolina
Asheville – On June 21, protesters painted "Defund the Police" in yellow along Spruce Street in front of the police department. On June 22, the city washed away the mural.[76]
Charlotte – On June 9, "Black Lives Matter" was painted on South Tryon Street. By June 12, it had been vandalized with skid marks.[77] On November 10, the city council voted 10–1 to reopen the street even though more businesses were benefitting from the mural being there than losing money from the street being closed.[78]
Elizabeth City – There is a "Black Lives Matter" mural painted on East Colonial Avenue. This mural was painted in honor of
Andrew Brown Jr., who was shot and killed by a Pasquotank County Sheriff's deputy.[79][80]
Fayetteville "Black Lives Do Matter" and "End Racism Now" will be painted on the street encircling the
Market House.[81]
Akron – On June 18, "Black Lives Matter" was painted with permanent paint along Howard Street, near the site of the fatal shooting of a recent high school graduate, Na'Kia Crawford, the previous Sunday.[83]
Cincinnati – Local artists painted "Black Lives Matter!" on Plum Street in front of
Cincinnati City Hall. Seventeen local artists were each assigned a letter and up to seven assistants. Based on a Poem written by Alandes Powell the mural was designed and painted in less than five days.
Alandes Powell raised over $150,000 in less than five days. The
Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio acted as the fiscal agent, the proceeds went to a group of Black Artist, Black Art Speaks which was co-founded by Alandes Powell and a group of 17 Artist. The mural has been updated each year and will be fully repainted in 2025.[84][85]
Cleveland – On June 20, local artists painted "Black Lives Matter" temporarily along East 93rd Street as part of the Elevate the East art project.[86]
Oklahoma
Oklahoma City – "Black Voices" and "Black Lives Matter" were painted on streets in Downtown and Northeast Oklahoma City, respectively.[87]
Tulsa – Overnight on June 19, "Black Lives Matter" was painted in yellow along Greenwood Avenue in the
Greenwood District, on the site of the
Tulsa Race Massacre.[88] It was removed by the city on October 6.[89]
Oregon
Eugene – On June 18, local artists with the Eugene BIPOC Art Collective painted "Black Lives Matter" in yellow lettering with black handprints along 8th Avenue downtown in front of the
Wayne Lyman Morse United States Courthouse.[90] That night, the mural was defaced with tire tracks. Over the following days a suspect was identified, and the artists and the community added to the mural, incorporating the tracks into the design by covering them with handprints of all colors of the rainbow.[91]
Portland – On June 18, "Black Lives Matter" was painted on North Edison Street by the neighborhood. Inside the letters detailed stories about minority history in the area were included, starting the first black visitor from the
Lewis and Clark expedition in 1800, ending with stories from 2018.[92][93] It was vandalized on July 21.[94]
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia – A pastor had "End Racism Now" painted in yellow on a street in the
Fishtown neighborhood. City crews tried unsuccessfully to remove it.[95]
South Carolina
Spartanburg – On June 20, volunteers painted "Black Lives Matter" along West Broad Street.[96]
Tennessee
Chattanooga – On June 29, volunteers painted "Black Lives Matter" on Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd in front of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center.[97]
Texas
Austin – "Black Austin Matters" was painted in yellow along Congress Avenue.[98] The Austin Justice Coalition painted "Black Artists Matter" in yellow along East 11th Street in the
Central East Austin neighborhood.[99]
Houston – On June 19, "Black Towns Matter" was painted in red and yellow lettering along Link Road in
Independence Heights, the first city incorporated by African-Americans in Texas.[101]
Montpelier – On June 13, hundreds of volunteers painted "Black Lives Matter" in yellow on the street in front of the
Vermont State House. The mural was vandalized the following day.[105]
Virginia
Harrisonburg – On September 23, the Black Student Alliance of
Eastern Mennonite University unveiled its 114-foot-long “Black Lives Matter” mural painted in yellow street paint at the entrance of the University Commons. [106]
Madison – On June 8, protesters painted "Defund Police" in yellow along Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard downtown.[108]
Milwaukee – On June 19, "Black Lives Matter" was painted in yellow along North Martin Luther King Junior Drive adjacent to a police station in the
Harambee neighborhood.[109] Much of the mural washed away in a thunderstorm the following day.[110]
Other countries
Similar street murals have been painted outside the United States:
Australia – In
Brunswick, Victoria, residents painted "Black Lives Matter" in black against a green background on Florence Street.[111]