Black Lives Matter mural at high school honors Floyd
Family, friends and officials turn out for unveiling ceremony
The death of former Houston resident George Floyd last spring ignited nationwide protests as millions of people wrote, wore and shouted the same phrase: Black Lives Matter.
Now, the words stretch in crimson-and-gold block letters down Alabama Street in front of Jack Yates High School. The mural, completed and unveiled Saturday, pays tribute to Floyd, an alumnus and former football player who grew up in a public housing complex in Third Ward.
“It took a little boy from Cuney Homes to rock the world,” said state Sen. Borris Miles, whose district includes Houston. “It took a little boy from Cuney Homes to wake up our eyes across this nation.”
Friends, family members and former classmates and teammates of Floyd joined elected leaders and officials at the ribboncutting ceremony in front of the HISD high school. Balloons with the school colors were released skyward. Hundreds of bikers and motorcyclists from multiple clubs paraded through the high school entrance, revving their engines and blasting music in a show of support. A high school marching band performed for the crowd, full of proud and spirited high school alumni.
“This is another public statement that the life and death of George Floyd is not in vain and that that eight minutes and 46 seconds are still being resonated throughout the globe,” said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis and the Houston Society for Change commissioned Jonah Elijah, a 2012 Jack Yates High School graduate, to design and paint the mural. Elijah last year earned a master’s degree in fine arts from Claremont Graduate University in Southern California.
Creating a lasting piece of artwork that students at his former high school will see every day “means so much,” Elijah said, adding that he hopes it inspires people to respect, honor and treat each other like family.
“I hope it’s something that we can look within and we can allow this to be an anchor for our unity,” the 26-year-old artist said, wearing a Jack Yates sweatshirt still smeared with paint from applying the finishing touches.
Painted at the end of the mural is a red football jersey with a yellow “88” — the number Floyd
wore — alongside his dates of birth and death. Several of Floyd’s former teammates and childhood friends founded 88 C.H.U.M.P. (Communities Helping Underprivileged Minorities Progress), an organization working to end police violence, dismantle systemic racism and promote civic engagement.
“I want everybody not to get in some type of normalcy like we’ve won the battle,” said Vaughn Dickerson, one of the organization’s founders. “We’re still unheard, we’re still separate and not equal.”
Police Chief Art Acevedo, who attended the mural unveiling, said he is continually looking for opportunities to reform the Houston Police Department. The department is working with Turner to respond to recommendations made by a policing reform task force last year, he said.
“Although our work is neverending, I’m proud to say we are still having a lot of departments across the country calling us and looking at us to share our practices with them,” Acevedo said.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee presented Elijah with a certificate of congressional recognition and gave members of the Floyd family a copy of the George Floyd Justice
in Policing Act of 2020, which was passed in June by the U.S. House in an effort to increase law enforcement accountability and reform policing. It did not advance in the Senate.
“I want the world to know that the history of African American and Black people is not all wrapped up in death, but it is wrapped up in glory,” Jackson-Lee said. “It is wrapped up in success, it’s wrapped up in leadership, it’s wrapped up in courage.”
Brooke Williams, Floyd’s niece and an honor-roll student at the same high school, thanked attendees for celebrating her uncle during Black History Month and called for recognizing other victims of police violence “whose names may never be known.”
“We must continue to shine light on Black lives and stand for those whose voices have not been heard,” said Williams, also a varsity basketball player. “Please remember that I will rise. My family will rise. Black men will rise, Black lives will rise.”
Floyd’s sister, LaTonya Floyd, stood near the painting of her younger brother’s jersey as a light rain began to fall. She felt overwhelmed.
“It’s not going to bring him back, of course not,” Floyd said. “But I feel the love of people all races, colors, creeds, all over the world. I feel that — it’s instilled in me.”