Black Lives Matter Murals Are Being Defaced in Cities Throughout the Country

A Black Lives Matter mural outside of Chicago was painted over to read “All Lives Matter” earlier this week, the latest occurrence of what has become a nationwide trend in recent weeks of vandals defacing similar BLM murals, as the U.S. painfully comes to terms with an evolving public dialogue centered around racism following the death of George Floyd.

KEY FACTS

A portion of a street mural, which had been completed just two weeks ago in Oak Park (an Illinois neighborhood north of Chicago), was vandalized overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.

Overnight Monday into Tuesday, in Martinez, California, local police opened an investigation after “White Lives Matter” was illegally painted onto a roadway.

Just three days earlier in Martinez, a couple (who would later be charged with a hate crime) was filmed vandalizing a city-approved Black Lives Matter mural, located outside a courthouse.

On Monday, state police in Vermont informed the Attorney General’s Office that two Black Lives Matter roadway murals and a “Black Trans Lives Matter” mural were defaced.

Last month in Baltimore, chalk messages written by elementary students on their school’s walls in support of the Black Lives Matter movement were power-washed away by adults.

Tire marks were left across a Black Lives Matter mural in uptown Charlotte in early June.

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