{"id":343575,"date":"2026-06-20T00:53:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T00:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343575\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T00:53:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T00:53:41","slug":"austin-community-celebrates-black-artists-matter-mural-before-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343575\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin community celebrates ‘Black Artists Matter’ mural before removal"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Austin city leaders gathered on East 11th Street on Juneteenth to celebrate the \u201cBlack Artists Matter\u201d mural before it must be removed under an order from the Texas Department of Transportation. The mural and the city\u2019s rainbow crosswalk are slated for removal in compliance with a Texas Department of Transportation directive requiring cities to remove political ideologies from roadways. Last October, Gov. Greg Abbott directed TxDOT to enforce the policy.<\/p>\n

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson stood on the blocked-off street where the yellow letters spelling \u201cBlack Artists Matter\u201d are painted<\/a> on the roadway\u2019s surface. \u201cWe will never forget that when the state decided to target our murals, the community stood together to celebrate our city\u2019s diversity, spirit and creativity,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n

Watson criticized the state\u2019s actions, saying, \u201cThe state government engages in negative rhetoric and threats, it targets communities that it disagrees with and seeks retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the order, Watson formed the Public Spaces Task Force to identify other ways to celebrate diversity <\/a>in Austin.<\/p>\n

ALSO: Screwworm medications straining animal shelter budgets across Texas<\/a><\/p>\n

Daphne McDole, chief executive officer of the African American Cultural Heritage District and a member of the task force, said she wanted the event held on Juneteenth because of its significance. \u201cI wanted to do it on Juneteenth, it was significant to me because I knew that that was the day my community would be in the district. We will be celebrating over here all day so it was appropriate,\u201d McDole said.<\/p>\n

Task force members said they are exploring alternatives to honor East Austin\u2019s history and diversity. They noted that city leaders in San Antonio created rainbow sidewalks after removing rainbow crosswalks but said Austin will pursue its own approach.<\/p>\n

Task force chair Steven Rivas said the community is focused on preserving the meaning behind the markings. \u201cWe chose to come together as a community and find a way to respect what these markings mean and build upon them. If we can\u2019t have them in the street, we\u2019re going to put them off the street,\u201d Rivas said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Austin city leaders gathered on East 11th Street on Juneteenth to celebrate the \u201cBlack Artists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-343575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343575","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=343575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}