FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — An iconic Fayetteville mural, and the building that boasted it, have been torn down.
On July 30, the "Love Unites Us" mural on Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard was torn down. The mural was first painted in 2020, after a vacant building on MLK was vandalized with a "white pride" message.
Artist Olivia Trimble had painted over past hate speech that had shown up in the community, and tracked down the owners of the building, who were about to paint over the message.
Trimble began the mural that July, painting "Love Unites Us" over it. Just a few months later, in September, the mural itself had been vandalized.
Vandals would go on to graffiti over the mural multiple times.
The mural became a community landmark and in 2021 was the site of a project with Graffiti Feeds, a program that helped youth and families restore and beautify the community.
Graffiti Feeds' first project was restoring the mural. At the time, the Fayetteville Police Department said that it had seen a spike in graffiti across Fayetteville during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lakisha Bradley, the founder of the project, explained to 5NEWS at the time that the project helped provide people a creative outlet, saying that restoring the murals also helps restore the individual through providing career workforce development skill sets. She says the teens are able to work with the muralist to learn how they can turn painting murals into a career.
“Also, how are we giving hope and conversation pieces to the community to give someone that may feel hopeless a spark in their life to say you know what, I can make it, today is going to be a good day,” Bradley said.
The mural continued to inspire residents and visitors alike in Fayetteville up until it was torn down.
Trimble released the following statement on July 31:
"I received word yesterday that the Love Unites Us building has been torn down. I painted and repainted that piece back in 2020 with the help of many sweet volunteers, cheerleaders, support from the city and Mayor Jordan, and collaborations with Nate Walls and MyTbydesign. The building had been tagged with hate speech, reading "white pride," and with the building owner's permission I covered it with an indisputable fact — that Love Unites Us.
This wasn't just a simple coverup, that sign was vandalized repeatedly, once with "love weakens us," another time with random letters marked out, and a special message to me that read "your days are numbered." It has been a bittersweet project. While I have been proud to have my work in that space, during this period I was told that my activism is useless and that I shouldn't cover hate speech when it arises, and I've been plagued by the thought of "your days are numbered" every time l've driven by the building.
I am at peace with this story coming to an end. I hope that some new, much needed housing will fill this empty lot, and that we don't have another instance where hate speech appears and needs to be covered."
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