In 2020, after a summer of protests rocked U.S. cities, the words “Black Lives Matter” went from the rallying cry of racial justice demonstrators to words lining the very roads along which they marched.
After the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, towns and cities nationwide commissioned artists to paint BLM street murals in solidarity with the reckoning on police brutality and racism prompted by the unprecedented, multiracial mass rallies.
Five years on, many of the murals are still maintained by activists and community groups, while wear and tear, construction and vandalism spelled the end of others. And the mural widely thought to have inspired them all — 35-foot-tall (11-meter-tall) yellow capital letters painted on a street one block from the White House — is gone.
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., ordered crews to remove the BLM mural in March under pressure from the Republican-led Congress. Bowser noted that the mural — an act of defiance against President Donald Trump’s first administration — “inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period.”
Keyonna Jones, one of seven artists who painted Black Lives Matter Plaza, said she understands why Bowser acted and that the mural’s removal doesn’t take away from its historic importance.
“To see it replicated all over the world within 24 hours,” Jones said during the demolition of the plaza. “I think is what really speaks to the power of art and so that is my favorite part about the whole experience.”
According to Urban Art Mapping, a database of public street art, nearly 150 “Black Lives Matter” murals remain.
Lindsey Owen, an art historian in Chicago, said each one represents the shared cultural and political purpose of a community.
“Even as BLM Plaza is dismantled, the reciprocal mirroring of these murals ensures their persistence,” Owen said, “now also reflecting the absence of spaces that have been removed.”
Here are details of some notable BLM murals:
In 1899, Hobson City became Alabama’s first self-governed all-Black municipality. In 2020, residents including Mayor Alberta McCrory painted “Black Towns Matter” on its main street, Martin Luther King Boulevard.
In Montgomery, a temporary installation was established around Court Square Fountain, once the site of a slave market. City officials said the mural will be washed away once wear and tear begin to show.
Michelle Browder, the artist, said her design reflects the history of the area, and that the community signaled a readiness to address racial inequity by uniting to complete the mural.
“It gives us a sense of uniqueness and shows that our statement has not only significance but also invites people to look down, read and reflect on what happened in this space,” Browder said.
In downtown Oakland, residents and community groups painted “Black Lives Matter” along three blocks of 15th Steet. A month later, another mural was erected by The Queer Healing Arts Center honoring Black Trans and Queer Lives.
The city council in neighboring Berkeley then approved a BLM painting in front of city hall.
A rainbow-colored mural along the center lane of Los Angeles’ Hollywood Boulevard states “All Black Lives Matter” in celebration of the BLM movement and transgender people of color.
Mural designer, Luckie Alexander, said its message resonates stronger than ever today.
“Seeing the BLM Plaza (in Washington) destroyed feels like we are going back in time, when Black folks and LGBTQ+ had to struggle just to exist,” Alexander said. “With the one here in Hollywood still remaining, it gives me hope that California is still a safe place to live.”
In Hartford, a Black Lives Matter mural — each letter painted by a different artist — was created on Trinity Street, just steps from the Capitol. That mural was repainted in 2023 after it was defaced with a swastika.
Andre Rochester, who painted one of the Ts in 2020 and 2023, said the mural represents the city’s Black and brown population.
“It was placed with intention,” Rochester said, adding: “It makes a loud statement, that the City of Hartford cares.”
Tyrone Motley, who inked the V during the 2023 repainting, said it is important that Hartford continues to protect the mural even as others around the country disappear.
“I feel work like this is ageless,” Motley said. “I’m pretty sure in 10 years people can look at a piece like this and still get the message.”
A “Black Lives Matter” mural in St. Petersburg mural was repainted in 2023 to read “Black History Matters.”
One of the murals that sprung up across Chicago — a 100-foot (30-meter) “Black Lives Matter” display in Oak Park — was vandalized to read “All Lives Matter.” The original message was later restored.
In Minneapolis, where a bystander used her cellphone to record Floyd’s killing at the hands of police, 16 artists participated in the creation of “Black Lives Matter” in 24-foot-high (7-meter-high) letters on the street outside the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum.
In Florissant, activists attempted to paint a mural in front of the police department on North Lindberg Avenue but the city kept painting over it.
In Kansas City, six murals were painted across one block, totaling a span of 2,000 feet (610 meters). The murals were enhanced in response to vandalism, but some are now deteriorating.
A block-long mural on Grand Street in Jersey City took two weeks to complete. In East Orange, 100 people participated in the creation of a 9,000 square-foot (840-square-meter) mural.
In New York City, a mural in front of Trump Tower in Manhattan and others in Harlem and Brooklyn were defaced with black paint by anti-abortion protesters.
Six murals were painted across Dallas in 2020. Abounding Prosperity, Inc., which provides health services to the Black community, secured private funding to ensure they will be maintained for 10 years.
A permanent mural was installed in Seattle’s Capitol Hill. The city and the Vivid Matter Collective — an artists’ group — repaint and maintain the mural every year. In 2021, a second mural was installed outside Seattle City Hall. The organization will repaint that mural in June.
