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The “Black Lives Matter” mural in Washington, D.C., has started to be dismantled and removed from the city streets. On March 10, 2025, crews began stripping the streets of the monumental yellow letters. The mural was installed in June 2020 as protests of the murder of George Floyd by a police officer roared throughout the world. A symbol of the time, the 48-foot-wide painting spanned across two blocks on 16th Street, about a quarter-mile from the White House. The area was also renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza.
In 2021, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the mural would be permanent. So, what happened? Fast-forward to 2025 when Representative Andrew Clyde, a Republican from Georgia, introduced a bill requiring Washington, D.C., to remove the mural—or else.
The bill states that the federal government will “withhold certain apportionment funds from the District of Columbia unless the Mayor of the District of Columbia removes the phrase Black Lives Matter from the street symbolically designated as Black Lives Matter Plaza, redesignates such street as Liberty Plaza, and removes such phrase from each website, document, and other material under the jurisdiction of the District of Columbia.”
Bowser complied so the city could receive its transportation funding. “The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Residents pointed out that while the mural will be gone, it won’t be forgotten. “You can dig up concrete but you cannot erase history,” D.C. resident Dianne Bradley told the BBC.
The Black Lives Matter global network criticized the move by Republicans. “First, they attacked critical race theory. Then, they banned books. Then DEI, Now they’re erasing Black Lives Matter Plaza. Big mistake,” a statement on X reads. “You can’t erase truth. Republicans hate that they have to walk past it. Hate that it reminds them of our power.”
Back in 2020, the famed D.C. mural was created overnight. It was done in response to reports of federal officials using tear gas against peaceful protestors in Lafayette Square. Mayor Bowser commissioned the mural; its symbolism was undeniable. “We are saying it loud.” Keyonna Jones, one of the mural artists, said at the time. “We are here. Maybe you didn’t hear us before. Maybe you got confused. But the message is clear. Black lives matter, period.”
Over the nearly five years it was there, the mural became a meeting spot for demonstrations and a place for people to march through. People celebrated Juneteenth on Black Lives Matter Plaza and gathered there to mourn the loss of Congressman John Lewis, who died in 2020.
The Black Lives Matter mural in Washington, D.C. is being removed from the city streets after nearly five years.
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The change comes after Representative Andrew Clyde, a Republican from Georgia, introduced a bill requiring Washington, D.C., to remove the mural—or else risk the withholding of federal funding.
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Source: City crews have begun removing the ‘Black Lives Matter’ street mural in D.C.
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