SAN ANTONIO \u2014 San Antonio’s Eastside historically has the largest concentration of African Americans across the city, and a new mural pays homage to community trailblazers and Black culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think portraiture has the biggest potential for change and influence,\u201d said artist Kaldric Dow.<\/p>\n
Dow\u2019s newest mural, called \u201cHeirlooms: Eastside Pride,\u201d now stretches across 600 feet of the Nolan Street underpass\u2019 walls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s Black bodies on a canvas or on mural, its representation,\u201d Dow said. \u201cYou want to see yourself in something larger than yourself. Represent the history and the things we went through, and to look for a future of something bright and colorful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Dow used images from EBONY and Jet magazines during the ’60s and ’70s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cStill got people that are alive and well from that era,\u201d Dow said. \u201cSo it wasn\u2019t that long ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mural shows several famous faces, including track star\u00a0Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner, also known as Flo-Jo, and some local heroes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cR.A. Callis came up a lot, who started the MLK march,\u201d Dow said. \u201cA lot of his past students were like, \u2018He got us out there to march.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
As a tribute to San Antonio\u2019s historically Black neighborhood, Dow included about a dozen Eastside street signs on the mural. One is Chestnut Street, where the first African Americans settled after emancipation, as well as Commerce and Hackberry.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerformers couldn\u2019t perform in the city, so they\u2019d go there and perform,\u201d Dow said. \u201cThat was the only place they could perform. All of these streets kind of have important means for the Eastside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Easter eggs, subtitle nods to Black culture are sprinkled throughout the mural.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got the community passing back and forth,\u201d Dow said. \u201cThere\u2019s kids in the car that look at it, and these images look just like them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dow worked with local students to create another mural nearby in St. Paul Square. He said he hopes art empowers future generations to think bigger.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor them to see something on such a large scale that\u2019s in the form of art, it makes you feel good about yourself,\u201d Dow said. \u201cAnd that you know you can do something bigger. There\u2019s something more than what\u2019s going on around you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dow said he hopes to see more art that reflects culture in the city \u2014 projects that remind folks they belong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho would have knew with art you could make an impact like that?\u201d Dow said. \u201cInspire but also represent a culture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 San Antonio’s Eastside historically has the largest concentration of African Americans across the city, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[21023,2160,132,63052,1570,102,138,223,82,84,83,1569,2053,835],"class_list":["post-178191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-amber-hughes","tag-app-top-stories","tag-austin","tag-black-history-month-2026","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}