Black Lives Matter mural installed on Hollywood Blvd.

By: Kayla Rodgers

Contributing Writer

HOLLYWOOD — The city of Los Angeles has installed a permanent mural on Hollywood Boulevard to commemorate the “All Black Lives Matter” march that took place in mid-June during nationwide protests against anti-Black racism and police brutality.

Construction of the mural started Aug. 25 and finished Aug. 29, with Hollywood Boulevard reopening to vehicle traffic Aug. 30, according to a press release from the Los Angeles City Bureau of Street Services.

The mural commemorates a march that took place June 14 and was one of dozens of demonstrations in Los Angeles protesting the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Memorial Day.

The march also brought visibility to racial injustice against the Black LGBTQ+

population.

A coalition of Black LGBTQ+ organizations calling themselves the Black Advisory Board put together the march, in order to carve out a space for Black people in an activist movement often dominated by white voices, according to the Los Angeles Times.

On June 13, the day before the march, volunteers installed a temporary version of the “All Black Lives Matter” mural on Hollywood Boulevard between Highland Avenue and Orange Avenue. The organization Black LGBTQ+ Activists for Change worked in partnership with various city agencies and Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell on the permanent mural, designed to be safer for drivers using the roadway.

The City Council unanimously approved the installation Aug. 19.

“Today, after years and years of violence against our Black and Queer communities, we are creating the first memoralized space in Los Angeles dedicated to transgender people of color,” O’Farrell, whose district includes Hollywood and who is openly gay. “As the site of the first nationally recognized Gay Pride Parade in the nation, Hollywood must be and will be the safe space designated for this landmark distinction.”

Katrina Samala, who chairs the city of Los Angeles Transgender Advisory Council, thanked everyone who worked to see this project come to fruition in the Bureau of Street Services statement.

“Acknowledging the historic event in June, while elevating the conversation about the experiences of transgender and queer people of color, is critical as we progress in the movement to ensure the visibility of our community,” Samala said.