Fifty three years before
artists covered buildings with murals to make the world aware of the murder of
George Floyd, members of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), created
and painted the Wall of Respect on The corner of 43rd Street and Langley Avenue
on Chicago’s South Side.
Artists Xena Goldman, Greta
McLain, and Cadex Herrera painted this mural on the 38th street wall of Cup
Foods, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Denver artists Thomas
"Detour" Evans (left) and Hiero Veiga work on a mural of George Floyd
on the side of Ready Temporary Services, 1915 E Colfax Ave.
Leigh
Paterson / KUNC
“…The Wall of Respect is
regarded as the first collective street mural in the United States…”
(Photo credit Roy Lewis)
“Wall of Respect,” a
20-by-60-foot mural painted on a tavern, honored more than 50 African-American
heroes, including Ray Charles, W.E.B. Du Bois, Dick Gregory, Charlie Parker,
Bill Russell, Nina Simone and Malcolm X. (Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty)
The Wall was a
collaborative effort of OBAC’s three workshops—Visual Arts, Writer’s, and
Community.
“OBAC was a
multi-disciplinary collective of artistic, community and intellectual
practitioners active within the US civil rights movement…”
Poet and publisher Haki
Madhubuti, a member of the OBAC writers’ workshop:
“…The mural's painters
and photographers were members of the visual artists workshop of Organization
of Black American Culture (OBAC), an acronym that means "chieftain"
in the West African language of Yoruba…”
Further,
“…Madhubuti notes that
the "Wall of Respect" was an outgrowth of the Black Arts Movement, a
cultural expression of the Black Power Movement...”
"It was a
guerrilla mural," said artist Jeff Donaldson in a 2003 interview shortly
before his death. Donaldson, one of the 21 artists and photographers who
created the mural without the permission of the building's owner, added:
"It was a clarion call, a statement of the existence of a people."
“…over the next eight
years, more than 1,500 murals were painted in virtually every black
neighborhood in the nation, according to art historian Michael D. Harris.
For further details
regarding “The Wall of Respect”:
Please check out the YouTube version:
