Crews in Washington, D.C., have begun removing the city’s “Black Lives Matter” street mural, a notable symbol of the 2020 protests against the killing of George Floyd, after a Republican bill targeting the mural threatened city funding.
In June 2020, the city painted the phrase “Black Lives Matter” on the pavement in uppercase, yellow letters covering two blocks on 16th Street, about a quarter mile from the White House.
According to a DDOT statement, work on the plaza will take six to eight weeks to complete.
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Washington, D.C., Mayor Bowser said the plaza will be part of D.C.’s America 250 mural project, “where we will invite students and artists to create new murals across all eight wards.”
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In 2021, Mayor Muriel Bowser said the mural would become permanent to commemorate the protests. But last week, Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., introduced a bill calling for the city to paint over the mural and rename the area Liberty Plaza — or lose federal funds.
“The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference,” Bowser wrote on X.
A group of people gathered nearby to see the painting in its final moments on Monday.
“There’s no such thing as erasure,” D.C. resident Adrianne Lind said. “If that’s the attempt, it’s just not possible to do. It’s not just that we saw it — the whole world saw it.”
The 50-foot-long street mural spelling out “Black Lives Matter” on 16th Street was created during the 2020 protests following the police killing of George Floyd.
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Reconstruction on D.C.’s Black Lives Matter plaza began Monday morning.
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Floyd was killed in 2020 by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Floyd’s death sparked nationwide demonstrations that summer — including in D.C., where, at one point, peaceful protesters were met with violence and tear gas by federal law enforcement.
Bowser told NPR’s Morning Edition on Monday the mural helped the city through a “very dark time in American history.”
“It’s going to evolve, absolutely,” she said, though she did not provide further clarification on what the plaza will look like in the future.
NPR’s Juliana Kim and WAMU’s Sarah Kim contributed to this report.
The plaza before construction began.
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