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<\/p>\nThe Pride and \u201cBlack History Matters\u201d murals that were painted over last year in St. Petersburg are starting to show again.<\/p>\n
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Nearly a year after the state ordered dozens of murals to be painted over across the Tampa Bay region, some of the artwork is beginning to show through again.<\/p>\n
In St. Petersburg, remnants of the former Pride mural at 25th Street and Central Avenue are becoming visible beneath the black paint used to cover it.<\/p>\n
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The mural was installed in 2020 and became a gathering place for the LGBTQ+ community. But last year, the Florida Department of Transportation ordered the city to remove it as part of a statewide crackdown on street art painted on public roadways.<\/p>\n
The state argued the murals could distract drivers, create confusion and pose a safety risk. FDOT ultimately covered five murals in St. Petersburg and 47 in Tampa.<\/p>\n
The city had sought exemptions for several of the murals, including the Pride mural, but the state rejected those requests.<\/p>\n
Now, the cover-up itself is beginning to wear away.<\/p>\n
Dr. Byron Green-Calisch, president of St. Pete Pride, said he drives past the former mural regularly \u2014 and has recently started taking the longer route home on purpose<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more traffic, the more it comes up,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like I’m doing my civic duty.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said seeing the mural re-emerge has taken on a symbolic meaning for the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shoddy job of the cover-up was not going to last,\u201d Green-Calisch said. \u201cIt was a moment to really celebrate the symbolicness of the resilience of all of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pride mural isn’t the only piece of artwork beginning to show through.<\/p>\n
Remnants of the former \u201cBlack History Matters\u201d mural outside the Woodson African American History Museum on 9th Avenue South are also becoming visible beneath the paint.<\/p>\n
St. Pete resident Robert McLemore said the mural represented an important part of the community’s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s my ancestors. That’s what they went through,\u201d McLemore said.<\/p>\n
McLemore said he believes removing the artwork did not erase the history it represented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to try to erase it all, but you can’t do it. That’s history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Since the murals were removed, St. Petersburg has looked for other ways to acknowledge the artwork and the communities they represented.<\/p>\n
The city installed 11 Pride-inspired bike racks in the Grand Central District. Officials have also discussed putting mural art on city-owned buildings and creating city flags honoring Pride and Black history.<\/p>\n
For now, the city says it does not have plans to paint over the murals again. 10 Tampa Bay also reached out to FDOT for comment but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pride and \u201cBlack History Matters\u201d murals that were painted over last year in St. Petersburg are starting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-382254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}