Plans are being developed to paint a Black Lives Matter mural in an Alabama city’s downtown.
The Tuscaloosa City Council voted last week in favor of adding the temporary artwork to a downtown street adjacent to the city’s government plaza, The Tuscaloosa News reported Monday.
District 7 Councilwoman Sonya McKinstry said the council voted to support the mural in an effort to show solidarity with nationwide demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd in May.
Floyd, a handcuffed Black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee against his neck for several minutes as Floyd lay face down on the ground.
Similar artwork has appeared on streets in cities across the country, including in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Raleigh, North Carolina, among others.
“States across the nation are standing up since the murder of George Floyd,” the news outlet quoted McKinstry as saying. “I felt that we should take the same stand.”
Tuscaloosa’s mayor was set to begin searching for an artist interested in designing the mural, The Tuscaloosa News said. A final design would be brought to the council for a vote.
An exact timeline for the mural was not immediately given.
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
