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Construction crews have begun jackhammering away the city’s iconic street mural, which stood as a symbol of the 2020 protests against the killing of George Floyd by a police officer.
During the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, a large yellow mural was painted in an act of defiance against Donald Trump, who was serving his first term as president.
The Democratic mayor Murial Bowser ordered the construction of the mural and renaming of the intersection to ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza’. Last week, Republican representative Andrew Clyde introduced a bill calling for the city to paint over the mural and rename the area Liberty Plaza, or risk losing federal funds.
Located one street down from the White House, removal of the mural is expected to take six weeks. Mayor Bowser announced the removal of the mural last week, after pressure from Republicans in Congress grew. On X, she wrote:
‘The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference. The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern.’
The mural is to be replaced by a series of ‘city sponsored murals,’ however, no details of what these images will be of have been stated.
