After hearing about Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s commissioning of several artists to paint “Black Lives Matter” on a street leading to the White House, a group of Hattiesburg residents is taking that same initiative to paint the words on the stretch of Mobile Street that runs from East 5th Street to East 6th Street.
The task was begun early Friday morning, after Hattiesburg resident Glenda Funchess and a group of about six other people received permission from city officials for the initiative. The group, using temporary yellow paint, started at about 6 a.m. and finished the word “black” before returning at 5:30 p.m. to work on the piece some more.
“It’s just an addition to peaceful protests,” local artist Vixon Sullivan said. “It’s temporary, but we hope that it has a lasting effect. We chose this area specifically because there was a march that actually happened here quite a few years ago as part of the Civil Rights Movement.
“So we’re just kind of mimicking what we saw in D.C. with the ‘Black Lives Matter,’ just encouraging people to get out, protest and fight for things that we deserve as a country. Outside of those seven people who helped paint, we had people bring us food, bringing us water. We forgot a tape measure, so people brought tape measures for us.”
That section of Mobile Street is temporarily closed to traffic, and the paint job will remain until it naturally wears away.
“Hopefully the wear and tear of the road will age it appropriately,” Sullivan said. “The city blocked this off, so the city is in support of it.”
So far, several local residents have stopped by to ask the group questions about the paint job and give their feedback.
“A lot of people are coming by just to ask what’s going on here,” Sullivan said. “Actually, we did have one guy that was like, ‘man, y’all are bringing this stuff down here too?’
“So there is a little negative connotation with it, with the protests, and I think that has a lot to do with the rioting and looting and stuff like that.”
After Bowser commissioned the work in D.C., street pastor Rich Penkoski – who serves as head of the D.C. Chapter of the Warriors for Christ – filed suit in federal court against the mayor. The suit claims Bowser is violating the First Amendment’s establishment clause by showing a preference to a “cult orthodoxy.”
The suit also alleges that Bowser’s decision to change a street name to “Black Lives Matter Plaza” was done “to pay respect to the Black Lives Matter liturgy at the taxpayers’ expense.”
