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The Walls Remember: Murals and the Unyielding Story of Black America

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — You can pass laws that punish truth-tellers and silence teachers who dare speak the name of freedom. But you cannot silence color. You cannot silence the wall.

Published

9 months ago

October 23, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

You can try to bury people. You can rewrite their history books, close their schools, and burn their libraries. You can pass laws that punish truth-tellers and silence teachers who dare speak the name of freedom. But you cannot silence color. You cannot silence the wall. Across this country, in cities both proud and scarred, the story of Black America refuses to die. It is written not in the ink of permission, but in the paint of defiance. It rises on concrete, brick, and steel. The murals speak where the history books fall silent.

Philadelphia, the so-called birthplace of America, has become a vast open-air scripture of the Black experience. On its walls, the dead rise again, the forgotten are called by name, and the children of this century inherit the truth their nation keeps trying to erase. Mural Arts Philadelphia has filled the city with living testimony. The Colored Conventions: A Buried History calls back the men and women who, long before Emancipation, gathered to demand that their humanity be recognized. The Legacy of Bishop Richard Allen reminds every passerby that resistance can begin with a single step away from the back of a segregated church.

Across Germantown Avenue, Harriet Tubman & the Underground Railroad stands as both memory and prophecy. Nearby, Octavius Catto returns through Remembering a Forgotten Hero, his face no longer hidden in the shadows of history. And then there is Dr. J, the mural of Julius Erving not as an athlete but as a man—a man of dignity, intellect, and command. These walls do not whisper; they roar. In Baltimore, the paint itself breathes. The city holds a long lineage of African American creativity, from the classrooms of Morgan State University to the heart of the Black Arts District along Pennsylvania Avenue. The murals of Ernest Shaw tower above streets once broken by neglect, affirming that art can be armor and prayer all at once.

Baltimore’s artists work in the spirit of survival. They know that the paintbrush, in the hands of the oppressed, becomes a weapon sharper than any blade. Their colors speak to a people long told to be invisible, declaring instead, We are still here. Out west, Los Angeles wears its resistance across miles of concrete. Its murals were born in the heat of rebellion and the ache of inequality. The artists of SPARC, the Social and Public Art Resource Center, took what was once the language of graffiti and turned it into gospel.

Charles “Boko” Freeman’s Return to the Light reflects a hunger for justice, while Noni Olabisi’s To Protect and Serve lays bare the truth of state violence. City officials tried to silence her, but her work still stares down the same forces she painted against. Alice Patrick’s Women Do Get Weary But They Don’t Give Up honors the women who built the bones of America: Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Height, Josephine Baker, and Oprah Winfrey. Women who carried nations on their backs and never complained of the weight. These murals are not decorations. They are sermons painted in public view, declaring that beauty without justice is a lie.

In Topeka, Kansas, across from the sacred ground of Brown v. Board of Education, a mural calls the people to remember the battle that opened the schoolhouse doors. In Birmingham, Alabama, the colors stretch across old segregation lines, transforming the streets of suffering into streets of pride. In Jacksonville, Florida, the likenesses of A. Philip Randolph, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Weldon Johnson speak to the city’s long lineage of brilliance. These are not mere portraits; they are warnings and promises painted on brick. At St. Louis Lambert International Airport, a mural spans 51 feet of history. Black Americans in Flight tells of men and women who defied both gravity and hatred. Created by Spencer Taylor and Solomon Thurman, it chronicles the Tuskegee Airmen, astronaut Mae Jemison, and Ronald McNair, who perished in the Challenger explosion but are not remembered. Every panel sings of ascent. It is a mural that tells every traveler what America owes to those who lifted her higher than she deserved to go.

Even in the seat of power, where politics tries to silence the soul, the walls still speak. At The Wharf, artist Shawn Perkins painted portraits of Benjamin Banneker, Marvin Gaye, and Reverend Anthony Bowen, each one a local monument to a greater story. Just blocks away, the “Black Lives Matter” mural once stretched across the pavement like a hymn of protest, bright yellow and unyielding. Before Mayor Muriel Bowser was forced to capitulate to Donald Trump and remove the plaza, it pointed straight toward the White House as if to remind those inside: This nation was built by hands it tried to chain. Before any of these murals, there was Aaron Douglas. In 1934, his series Aspects of Negro Life told the story from the shores of Africa through the slave ships and into the modern city. His art carried the weight of memory and the hope of deliverance. Douglas painted the very thing this country still refuses to see: that Black life is America’s most enduring masterpiece.

The murals that cover this nation are not ornaments. They are testaments. They are the faces of ancestors who will not fade. Each brushstroke defies the lie that our story can be rewritten. Each color insists that our memory cannot be outlawed. Black history is not a month. It is not a chapter. It is a mural that stretches across the American conscience, daring anyone to paint over it.

Stacy M. Brown

Posts by Stacy M. Brown

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Jovita Moore Mural Still Has Not Been Repainted in Grant Park

ATLANTA VOICE — A mural depicting late journalist Jovita Moore, painted on the exterior wall of a building now occupied by Bellwood Coffee in Grant Park, was painted over in April. Moore passed away in 2021 after decades of working in Atlanta television news. Bellwood Coffee owners stated in May they were unaware of Moore’s identity or significance to the community before painting over the mural.
The post Jovita Moore Mural Still Has Not Been Repainted in Grant Park appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 8, 2026

Oakland Post

At the corner of Boulevard, SE. and Rosalia St., SE., directly across the street from an abandoned home and a Methodist Church, is Bellwood Coffee. One of hundreds of coffee shops in Atlanta, this place of business would not be worth a solitary discussion if not for the way its exterior walls are currently painted. There was once a mural depicting the late Jovita Moore, a beloved journalist who worked in Atlanta for decades. Moore, who passed away in 2021, mentored many of the people you see on television newscasts today. Though her legacy will never be forgotten, it was the mural of her image that was erased.

In April, members of the Grant Park community voiced their disgust at the mural, which graced a side wall of the building now occupied by Bellwood Coffee’s Grant Park location, before it was painted over. In its place are the words “Bellwood Coffee; Cocktails, Biscuits, Dry Goods, Air Conditioning. *Heat Too”. In May, the business owners responded to the community pushback on social media by acknowledging they did not know who Moore was before painting over her image. And later admitted that they did not attempt to find out what she meant to the community.

On May 21, the Bellwood Coffee Instagram account had a post about being “in close contact with Jovita’s family and are actively working on next steps in this process.” Two months later, the mural has not been replaced, repainted, or repositioned on the property. Nothing has been done. Black history is often erased, most recently by the current Presidential administration, but oftentimes on a smaller, quieter scale. The mural was originally painted by muralist Tommy Bronx, who had been in contact with the business owners about repainting it. As of July 6, Tommy Bronx had responded to a direct message via his Instagram account from The Atlanta Voice about any updates on his plans to repaint the mural.

“We’re currently working on it. You should see some movement in the weeks to come,” he wrote in a response.

On Monday, July 6, the business had several patrons inside and was running smoothly with three employees manning the counter. The Atlanta Voice dropped by Bellwood Coffee to get a look at the exterior wall where the mural once stood as a memorial to a journalist and mother who lost her life to brain cancer at the young age of 54. Moore’s image added some color to the block. The grey wall in its place does not.

A direct message was sent to the Bellwood Coffee Instagram account, and there hasn’t been a response as of 7 p.m. on Monday.

The post Jovita Moore Mural Still Has Not Been Repainted in Grant Park appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

Based on reporting by Atlanta Voice.

The post Jovita Moore Mural Still Has Not Been Repainted in Grant Park appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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‘Proud to Hang Her from a Tree’: Man Arrested for Threatening Black Senator

ATLANTA DAILY WORLD — A New York man faces felony hate crime charges for allegedly posting a threat against New York State Senator Lea Webb. James A. Crosby, 49, of Binghamton, was arrested by New York State Police after investigators determined he posted a threatening comment on a social media news post about a Juneteenth celebration.
The post ‘Proud to Hang Her from a Tree’: Man Arrested for Threatening Black Senator appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 8, 2026

Oakland Post

A New York man is facing felony hate crime charges after allegedly posting that he’d be “proud to hang” New York State Senator Lea Webb from a tree in response to a news story about a Juneteenth celebration.

James A. Crosby, 49, of Binghamton, was arrested June 23 by New York State Police after investigators determined he posted a threatening comment on a WBNG 12 News Facebook post. “I’d be proud to hang her from a tree,” Crosby wrote, according to WBNG.

Crosby was charged with making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, a class C felony, per the New York State Police. He is currently being held at Broome County Jail.

During the subsequent investigation, state police found Crosby was in illegal possession of firearms despite being prohibited from owning them due to a prior felony conviction. Investigators recovered a rifle, a large-capacity ammunition feeding device, and a firearm suppressor — all prohibited under New York state law, per the NYSP.

Crosby was charged with four additional counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, all class D felonies.

Webb, who represents New York’s 52nd Senate District, had been a featured speaker at a Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony at Binghamton City Hall, where the celebration included prayers and the singing of the Black national anthem.

Police said Crosby’s comment was posted in response to a WBNG news story covering the event.

The day before his arrest, Crosby posted a Facebook apology claiming the comment “was not intended to be racial in any way” and was made in reference to what he described as a “criminal,” citing criticism of Webb over her use of nonprofit legal aid in a foreclosure case — a matter state watchdogs said created an appearance of a conflict of interest, per the Ithaca Voice. He was arrested the following day.

Webb issued a public statement June 25 condemning the threat.

“It was extremely disappointing and hurtful to see the now-deleted threat and attacks on my life in response to a story about Juneteenth, a national holiday that recognizes the ending of slavery in America,” she said. “Feedback and thoughts on policy are one thing, but to make a public call for lethal violence is absolutely unacceptable and dangerous. We must recognize our shared humanity and reject violence in all forms.”

She thanked Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and law enforcement for their “swift response.”

Following Crosby’s comments, social media users called for a boycott of his contracting business, Crosby Home Improvements.

The Binghamton City Democratic Committee also called for an investigation into the incident before his arrest.

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The post ‘Proud to hang her from a tree’: Man arrested for threatening Black Senator appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.

Based on reporting by Atlanta Daily World.

The post ‘Proud to Hang Her from a Tree’: Man Arrested for Threatening Black Senator appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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CARICOM: Strengthen Integration for Future Generations

NEW YORK CARIB NEWS — Outgoing CARICOM Chairman Terrance Drew called on regional leaders to build a stronger and more effective Caribbean Community that benefits future generations. Speaking at the 51st Regular Meeting, Drew urged modernization of governance structures and improved implementation of Community decisions to make CARICOM safer and more prosperous.
The post CARICOM: Strengthen Integration for Future Generations appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 8, 2026

Oakland Post

Speaking Sunday at the opening of the 51st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Saint Lucia, Dr. Terrance Drew said the region must modernize its governance structures, improve the implementation of Community decisions, and ensure CARICOM becomes safer, more prosperous, and more relevant to the lives of its citizens.

The meeting, being held under the theme “CARICOM: From Resilience to Renewal in a Changing World,” coincides with the Community’s 53rd anniversary. During the ceremony, Dr. Drew formally handed over the rotating CARICOM chairmanship to Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister, Philip J. Pierre.

Reflecting on his six-month tenure as chairman, Drew praised fellow regional leaders for maintaining their commitment to democracy, good governance, unity, and the rule of law despite mounting global economic and geopolitical challenges.

“Throughout these challenges, CARICOM chose engagement over isolation. Together, we reaffirmed our commitment to a fair and rules-based international trading system and ensured that the interests of small developing states continued to be heard.”
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He highlighted progress made in strengthening the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, including deeper trade cooperation, expanded labour mobility, and efforts to lay the foundation for long-term economic growth. Drew also noted the Community’s growing partnerships beyond the Caribbean, particularly with the African Union, while stressing that every international partnership should advance the interests of all parties involved.

The outgoing chairman also expressed appreciation to Dr. Carla Barnett and the CARICOM Secretariat for their professionalism and unwavering support during his tenure.

“Whenever I called, you answered. Whenever support was required, you and your team responded with diligence, competence, and excellence.”

Dr. Drew urged the Secretariat to continue preserving its impartiality while faithfully implementing decisions made by Heads of Government, saying that balance has helped strengthen the regional integration movement.

The conference continues in Saint Lucia with regional leaders expected to deliberate on key issues including regional security, climate resilience, trade, economic integration, food security, Haiti, reparations, and strengthening the CSME.

Based on reporting by New York Carib News.

The post CARICOM: Strengthen Integration for Future Generations appeared first on BlackPressUSA.