City workers and volunteers throughout the Birmingham metropolitan area, both white and black, and some from as far away as Chicago, donned paint rollers and filled in letters outlined on First Avenue South between 16th and 17th streets near Railroad Park.Volunteers from all over came together to paint a Black Lives Matter Street mural at Railroad Park.When completed, the letters would spell “BLACK LIVES MATTER” in bold “Alabama Yellow” traffic paint.
Washington, D.C. was the first city to paint a “BLACK LIVES MATTER” mural on one of its main thoroughfares – Pennsylvania Avenue, the street leading to the White House.
In Birmingham, the idea behind the Black Lives Matter mural came from two people who had not known each other prior to the project, according to the Birmingham Mayor’s Office.
Cara McClure, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Birmingham, and Shawn Fitzwater, owner of Fitz Hand Painted Signs, both came up with the idea of painting a mural on a Birmingham street and contacted the Mayor’s Office.
If any city should have a street tribute to Black Lives Matters it should be Birmingham, a strategic battle ground for non-violent protests against racial segregation, Fitzwater said.
