The area of Race Street where the Black Lives Matter mural was.
The Black Lives Matter mural that proudly decorated the 400 block of Race Street in Cambridge for five years is gone. It has been covered by new asphalt laid during a city resurfacing project. While officials insist the paving was long-planned maintenance, the mural’s removal has renewed conversation about its meaning, its future, and the role of public art in Cambridge’s civic life.
Pottery artist Marsha Turner, who works nearby at Vintage Venue, told WBOC News the “wonderful” mural changed the atmosphere of downtown.
Mayor Lajan Cephas-Bey emphasized that resurfacing the block had been scheduled well before the mural faded, citing a 2018 roads analysis that ranked Race Street among the areas most in need of repair.
The nonprofit Alpha Genesis Community Development Corporation, which coordinated the original mural, is in ongoing dialogue with the city about creating a new design for the space.
City officials also told The Baltimore Sun that the mural could return. But on social media, the reaction was mixed, with numerous commenters criticizing the idea of repainting it—reflecting the same tensions that surrounded the project from its beginning.
When asked whether installing new street art could complicate federal funding or transportation requirements, the mayor said that decision would ultimately fall to the public and the city commissioners.
A Mural Born in a Historic Moment
The Race Street mural first appeared in June 2020, amid a nationwide uprising following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Across the country, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” shifted from a protest chant to a public art movement, with cities commissioning large street murals as a visible statement of solidarity.
In Cambridge, then-Mayor Victoria Jackson-Stanley approved the project, and community members began painting the 30-foot letters on June 17, 2020.
The artwork, designed by local artist Miriam Moran, incorporated Maryland iconography and portraits of Harriet Tubman, Gloria Richardson, and Frederick Douglass, linking the contemporary call for justice to the Eastern Shore’s deep civil rights history. Project management was led by Shelton Hawkins, whose family ties to Tubman and his own upbringing in Easton gave the effort a deeply personal dimension.
“It wasn’t only African American people painting,” Hawkins said at the time. “It was people from all different colors, all different races out there…coming together trying to fix the problem by coming up with a solution.”
As dancers performed an interpretive piece from the film Harriet, the final brushstrokes were laid on Juneteenth 2020.
The mural’s first version used standard road paint and was expected to last about a year. In 2021 and 2022, volunteers returned to refresh the fading imagery, once again bringing residents together in shared purpose.
Artist Miriam Moran freshening the mural in 2021.
Moran said the annual touch-ups were as much about community as color. “Doing this and having everybody come together…it’s to shine light on what’s happening to our community.”
A National Trend of Change
The removal of Cambridge’s mural parallels a shifting national landscape. According to the Associated Press, more than 150 BLM murals still exist, while others have been removed due to construction, resurfacing, vandalism, or political decisions.
Even the most famous of them, the Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, was dismantled earlier this year under pressure from Congress. One of its artists, Keyonna Jones, told The Associated Press the dismantling did not diminish its impact. “To see it replicated all over the world within 24 hours…is what really speaks to the power of art.”
Art historian Lindsey Owen noted that the murals’ cultural influence persists even when the paint does not. “The reciprocal mirroring of these murals ensures their persistence…now also reflecting the absence of spaces that have been removed.”
What Comes Next for Cambridge
Race Street remains at the center of dialogue—not just about resurfacing, but about memory, meaning, and what public art should represent in a small city with a profound civil rights heritage.
Alpha Genesis CDC continues to work with the mayor and commissioners on whether a new mural will rise where the old one once stood. Residents, business owners, and artists say they welcome the conversation, even if they don’t all agree on the outcome.
As Turner put it, the mural’s legacy is less about the asphalt and more about the people who gathered there.
And as former City Commissioner Laurel Atkiss told WBOC, “What we all need to remember about that mural is the feeling that we had when we were working on it together.”
Whether the words return to Race Street or take a new form elsewhere, many in Cambridge believe the spirit of the mural, and the unity it inspired, still matters.
The “R” during the 2022 touch-up.
Cambridge is A Very Unique Town. It has been given a Bad Rap alot if times because of it’s Crime .There are many Groups in Cambridge that Do Great Things and Alpha Genesis is one of them. They work hard to show The Black Culture , Black HIstory and The Whole History of Cambridge Md. History is History and We Can Not Change it but it can Be used for Positive Outcomes. I thought The Black Lives Mural was Amazing as well as Several More Murals there. The Harriet Tubman Statue is Fabulous and I often take My Grands there and Explain to them who she was and what she Accomplished. I would LOVE TO SEE THE MURAL RETURN. KEEP UP THE POSITIVE WORK CAMBRIDGE.
Putting political slogans, yet alone divisive ones. on public roads built and supported by taxpayer dollars can never be justified. I doubt the community would support painting Make America Great Again on its public streets and the public would be right to object—-yet there really isn’t any difference. Political statements belong on private not public property.