Days after the 34th Street Wall was painted black and stenciled last month, the “Gainesville is Ferguson” mural project was defaced.
Jonathan Waring, president of UF Students for a Democratic Society, said the wall was painted to bring awareness to the protests over the decisions not to indict the officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
It was also a general message to the community that all lives matter, the 20-year-old UF psychology sophomore said.
Shortly after the mural went up, red-, white- and blue-painted lines were drawn through all the messages, said Nailah Summers, founding member of human rights organization Dream Defenders and its Gainesville chapter. There was also something written to the effect of “thug life = dead MF,” she said.
“I’m not sure of the intentions of the person or people who vandalized it, but I think it’s hilarious that an act of hate was disguised under patriotic colors,” she said. “Do people forget that African Americans are in fact American? That this country was built through the violently forced and free labor of enslaved black people? That acts of protest are inherently American?”
Summers added she was unsurprised it was covered.
“The expression of grief and public outcry by black youth across the country makes so many other people uncomfortable, makes them defensive,” she said. “And after all, we are in the South.”
Waring said he doesn’t think a group was involved because of how small the actual defacement was but believes it was a planned response.
“I think it’s disgusting, honestly,” he said. “I think it takes a real heartless person to deface a painting that is just calling for justice for murdered individuals. The people who did it should be ashamed of themselves.”
Waring said he is not aware of any plans for the wall to be repainted, and as of now, no protests have been planned.
“I’m not sure about further plans to repaint the wall,” Summers said, “but I’d definitely be there if it were to be painted again.”
