Black History Month project to feature 28 murals in 28 days
There are 28 days of Black History Month and 28 murals will be featured in central Phoenix to honor more than 80 influential Black pioneers.
It’s Gizette Knight’s way of sending the message Phoenix rejected when she proposed a Black Lives Matter mural to be painted on a downtown street last summer. The city eventually denied the request after a pro-law enforcement mural was also proposed.
“If you close one door, I’ll make sure another one opens,” said Knight, a community activist. “If they won’t approve it, I’ll make something happen bigger than that. I met with a group of people and they said the mural needs to happen, regardless.”
The Black History Mural project launched Feb. 1 with more than a dozen artists painting historic figures many may not know about. Some of the murals will feature people who may not be household names, but their inventions and talents shaped the lives we lead today.
These figures include Garrett Morgan, who invented the three-position traffic signal and Oliver Brown who took on the Topeka Board of Education in a case that ended legal racial segregation in public schools.
The mural project will feature the famous and unsung heroes
“I wanted to give recognition to those unsung heroes that paved the way in the Black community because our history is very rich,” Knight said
“I wanted to give recognition to those people who helped pave the way, not just in America, but in the world, and don’t necessarily get the same recognition as people like Martin Luther King
Jr., Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman.”
The Hotel San Carlos in downtown Phoenix will host a tribute to football legends Jim Brown, Emmitt Smith and Ernie Davis. A mural of Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton and Stokely Carmichael will be painted at Carley’s Bistro and the downtown Phoenix jazz club, The Nash, is already home to a mural of musical icons Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis.
Before there was Eddie Murphy or Kevin Hart, Jackie “Moms” Mabley paved the way for Black comedians, she will be honored in a mural too.
Murals also include the original Tuskegee Airman, Black pilots who served during World War II, and the “Hidden Figures” women of NASA whose mathematical prowess helped put men in space. The largest of the 28 will be located at the George Washington Carver Museum. It will feature Carver, Frederick Douglas and Tubman.
The project, founded by Knight and a collective of community leaders, will take the entire month of February to complete. The group is also hosting a raffle for a grand prize. If you see a mural, take a photo and submit it on their Facebook page to enter.
“I need to help my community, I want to help my community,” Knight said.
“This has definitely been an eyeopener and I see that we’re a minority down here compared to New York where I’m from, but I see the love that we have for one another here and I just wanted to build on that. I see a lot of opportunity within the Black community to help us prosper and help each other prosper.”