Nicholas Wu, USA TODAY
Published 7:52 a.m. ET July 9, 2020 | Updated 9:37 a.m. ET July 9, 2020
CLOSE
Cities across the country followed Washington D.C.’s lead by painting “Black Lives Matter” and other words of support on city streets.
USA TODAY
New York City started painting a Black Lives Matter mural Thursday on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower.
Local television network WPIX reported the block of the street would be closed to cars until Sunday while the mural was painted.
The planned mural had provoked the ire of President Donald Trump, who slammed the mural on Twitter earlier this month as “denigrating” the street, antagonizing the city’s police, and creating a “symbol of hate” on “New York’s finest street.”
#BREAKING Fifth Avenue now closed to traffic between 56/57th Street for #BlackLivesMattter mural painting. @PIX11Newspic.twitter.com/f7emdj3UBu
— Anthony DiLorenzo (@ADiLorenzoTV) July 9, 2020
NYC is cutting Police $’s by ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and yet the @NYCMayor is going to paint a big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury Avenue. This will further antagonize New York’s Finest, who LOVE New York & vividly remember the….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2020
Mayor Bill De Blasio responded to Trump’s posts, saying “Black people BUILT 5th Ave and so much of this nation….we are honoring them.”
Here’s what you don’t understand:
Black people BUILT 5th Ave and so much of this nation.
Your “luxury” came from THEIR labor, for which they have never been justly compensated.
We are honoring them. The fact that you see it as denigrating your street is the definition of racism.— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) July 1, 2020
Several cities across the country have painted murals in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, including Washington, D.C. which painted “Black Lives Matter” in 50-foot yellow letters near the White House to honor the protesters. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also renamed the location of the mural as “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
BLM mural in DC: ‘Black Lives Matter’ painted in 50-foot yellow letters near White House to honor George Floyd protesters
Photos: Powerful photos show ‘Black Lives Matter’ painted across streets nationwide
Not everyone has praised the murals, though. Activists have called the painting of the murals like Washington, D.C.’s a “performative distraction” from substantive changes to policing like cuts to police budgets or reforms to use-of-force policies.
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/09/nyc-starts-painting-black-lives-matter-mural-front-trump-tower/5404111002/
