'Black Lives Matter' Mural Takes Over Bed-Stuy Street

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — Al James stopped at a giant "Black Lives Matter" mural painted in giant yellow script on Bed-Stuy's Fulton Street.

His mind turned to the Scriptures, to the 400 years of bondage foretold in Genesis and lived by black Americans like himself.

He's hopeful change is finally coming for his child and his child's children after the protests and growing social movement after the killing of George Floyd.

"The mural is great," he said, looking at its words too large to even read at street level. "But I just want to see some action. It's not about the paint to me."

Volunteers painted the "Black Lives Matter" mural on Fulton Street on Saturday and Sunday.

It drew inspiration from a similar mural in Washington, D.C. — a massive piece of public art emblazoned on a street facing the White House.

Bed-Stuy's Councilman Robert Cornegy and The Billie Holiday Theatre, a Bed-Stuy institution that has long championed black art, organized the mural.

And it quickly drew attention from some prominent black cultural and political figures.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and filmmaker Spike Lee showed up Saturday as volunteers slathered paint across hundreds of feet of Fulton Street from Marcy to Brooklyn Avenue.

They were joined by Cornegy, state Attorney General Letitia James, city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

Those politicians have pledged to put "laws on the books" — in Al James' words — and enacted other changes following George Floyd's death.

But while the Bed-Stuy mural has drawn crowds of onlookers like Al James, it has created some frustration on the block.

Medina Sadiq, executive director of Bedford Stuyvesant Gateway Business Improvement District, sat on steps near the mural Monday. She was waiting for a city sanitation official to come by and help with a potential trash problem.

Private companies hired by Fulton Street businesses can't pick up trash on the now-barricaded street's curbs, she said.

"They didn't talk to me about it and I don't think they thought about garbage collections," she said about organizers.

The mural can be seen along Fulton Street starting at Marcy Avenue.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday tweeted that the street will "share the message that #blacklivesmatter all summer long."

"We're making the block pedestrians-only and working with the MTA to coordinate nearby transit," he tweeted.