D.C. mayor to remove Black Lives Matter Plaza amid pressure from White House

Explore Our Galleries

An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow

Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters

Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two

Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali

Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie

Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage

What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

March 6, 2025

By NBC Washington

A “Black Lives Matter” mural on the street near the White House in 2020. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images file)

A spokesperson for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed to NBC Washington that Bowser will remove Black Lives Matter Plaza and the “Black Lives Matter” ground mural will be painted over. There’s no timeline yet for the changes, but the street art will be replaced with a design created by D.C. schoolchildren.

Bowser said she made the decision several days ago. When pressed about why, she said it was fair to say the White House didn’t like it.

In 2020, the two-block stretch of 16th Street NW north of the White House was designated as Black Lives Matter Plaza after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked protests nationwide, including in the District.

Bowser unveiled the ground mural on June 5 of that year. It was paved over about a year later, but the mural was replaced, and Bowser announced the new mural would be a permanent installation in October 2021.

[…]

On Monday, Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia introduced legislation that, if passed, would force Bowser to rename Black Lives Matter Plaza or else lose federal funding for D.C.

Learn what the bill says in detail.

With so many programs and signs of support being removed, it’s easy to understand why some don’t see “Free At Last” in action.

More news about the Black experience.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.