The “Black Lives Do Matter” installation at Cameron Art Museum. (Julia Wall for The Assembly)
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In 2020, protestors were chanting “Black Lives Matter,” but the Wilmington City Council wanted to add a word to the slogan.
Artists Janna Robertson and Greyson Davis had approached the council that summer about painting “Black Lives Matter” on Third Street, in front of city hall. A number of cities across the country had moved to do so after police in Minnesota killed George Floyd, sparking a summer of protest.
But Councilman Charlie Rivenbark took issue with the idea.
“I think this is probably the most racist and divisive thing that I’ve seen come before [council],” he said at a meeting in July 2020. “If you think Black lives are the only ones that matter, you’ve got a problem.”
The council’s two Black members, Kevin Spears and Clifford Barnett Sr., spoke in support of the project. But other council members argued the sign was political speech that belonged on private property.
After meeting with city officials, Robertson and Davis came up with an alternative: an 8-foot-tall sign at the city-owned Thomas and Willie Jervay Freedom Walk park, in the city’s Northside neighborhood, that would read: “Black Lives Do Matter.”
Three years later, the compromise has taken on new meaning as it travels around the city.
“I look at ‘do’ as an emphatic statement where, like, yeah, Black lives matter, obviously, but Black lives do matter,” said Davis, standing in front of the 18 letters on the grounds of CAM. “That’s an emphasis. Underline. Italic. Underscore. All of that.”
A different artist painted each of the other letters.
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