Residents react as removal of the Black Lives Matter mural begins
“It’s not just about the asphalt and the paint for us.” Residents reacted to the removal of the Black Lives Matter mural near the White House.
WASHINGTON – The shrill, metallic banging noises of a jack hammer echoed around the White House on Monday as crews started removing the large, yellow Black Lives Matter mural down the street from the president’s home.
The city erected the artwork in 2020 amid sweeping, nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by Minneapolis police.
But Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to replace the mural last week after Republican lawmakers threatened to revoke millions of dollars in transportation funding for the capital city if it wasn’t removed.
The move comes as President Donald Trump and his fellow GOP leaders have widely targeted diversity efforts – in the federal government, schools, private businesses and more.
As the sun beat down on Monday afternoon, a crew of around seven men in yellow safety vests tore up pavement and uprooted black barricades that surrounded the 50-foot-wide artwork.
Most of the people who stopped to watch the work told USA TODAY they were sad to see the installation go. Sitting on a nearby bench, Karen Long, a former D.C. resident who moved back to neighboring Arlington, Virginia, two years ago, described the construction scene as “somber.”
Long, 55, said she heard about the demolition on the morning news and needed to see it for herself. Although disheartened by the effort, Long said she viewed the mural’s removal as part of the long “moving process” of change.
Black lives, she said, would matter regardless of yellow paint on the ground.
“There was a movement, and there’s still going to be a movement,” she said. “This is not the end of it. This is just somebody saying, ‘Hey, I don’t like that symbol being there’ because they feel some kind of way about it, so let them have it.”
Sharifa Ganthier, a DJ, walked to the mural with her husband Marvin from their home near D.C.’s Union Market. When the mural was constructed in 2020, Ganthier, 37, said it brought a bit of “togetherness” to a city that saw turmoil during the COVID-19 pandemic and protests over racial injustice.
But Trump – and his fellow Republicans who control the House and Senate – have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion pushes, many of which were ushered in during the demonstrations after Floyd’s death.
“We have ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military,” Trump said during his joint address to Congress last week. “And our country will be woke no longer.”
Bowser ordered the painting of the mural in June 2020. It came after protesters were removed from the area with smoke canisters and pepper spray just before the president, who was in his first term, walked through Lafayette Park to pose for photographs at a nearby church.
The mayor’s chief of staff at the time said she wanted to make it “abundantly clear” the street belonged to the city and its residents. The plaza quickly became a symbol of defiance for Democrats against the Trump administration in the deep-blue capital.
‘Distraction’
Not all of Washington’s residents were happy with the artwork, however. And not all of the mural’s critics came from the right.
The D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter has long criticized the artwork, calling it in 2020 “a performative distraction from real policy changes” and alleging Bowser was not doing enough to help Black people in the city.
Black Lives Matter D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the mural’s demolition.
Many Republican lawmakers have also been critical of Black Lives Matter Plaza, though for different reasons. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., recently introduced legislation that would require the city to repaint and rename the plaza or lose federal funding, alleging the Black Lives Matter movement is corrupt.
“Our capital city must serve as a beacon of freedom, patriotism, and safety — not wokeness, divisiveness, and lawlessness,” Clyde said in a statement announcing the bill.
Marvin Ganthier, 37, said he couldn’t understand criticisms of the mural while standing nearby on Monday.
“I don’t see why anyone would have a problem with it,” said Ganthier, a DJ alongside his wife and a lifelong resident of the district. “They’re not saying your lives don’t matter.
Taking down the mural was a “waste of resources,” that would be better used to fix broken sidewalks elsewhere in the city, he argued.
Removing the mural near the White House is expected to take about six weeks. Bowser said the plaza will be repainted as part of a citywide mural project for the country’s 250th birthday next year.
