Officials and artists gathered Tuesday to unveil a freshly repainted Black Lives Matter mural that had been defaced over the weekend.
A swastika and a coded white supremacist message were scrawled on the mural on Trinity Street in Hartford, near the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch. By Sunday morning, artists and volunteers were out on Trinity Street fixing it.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin says the investigation into the vandalism is ongoing and that police have a person of interest in the case.
The mural was created in 2020, as a response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. With financial and logistical help from the city, artists were commissioned to adorn the block letters “Black Lives Matter” with inspirational art.
One of those artists was Sacha Kelly, who painted the “E” in “Matter.”
“I was focused on what we can do to uplift and elevate as a community,” Kelly said. “And I thought that the three pillars of that are education, enlightenment, making people more spiritually aware. And the third pillar is emancipation, freedom.”
Like the other artists who contributed to the mural Kelly said her “spirit was hindered” at first, but she was determined to fix the mural.
“We all decided collectively to come together and say, as a community, let’s really focus on our mission, which was to have positivity, beautification of the city and hope,” Kelly said.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the incident was a reminder that Connecticut citizens need to stand up to incidents of racism and hatred, no matter how small.
“If you see something, say something,” Lamont said. “It’s those little things that can insinuate their way into the body, and we’re not going to let that happen. It’s like a germ, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
