Amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, protests after the murder of George Floyd, and social and political tension in the final year of the first Trump administration, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser commissioned the creation of Black Lives Matter Plaza.

Overnight, local artists took to 16th Street NW and painted a 48-foot-wide piece, with bright, bold yellow letters saying “Black Lives Matter” leading right in front of the White House. On the morning of June 5, 2020, the mayor and other local leaders unveiled the mural to the District, nation and world.

For almost five years, Black Lives Matter Plaza served as a symbol to promote justice and equity, not only in the nation’s capital, but nationwide and throughout the world.

“When we created Black Lives Matter Plaza in June 2020, we sent a s

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