In the buildup to the 2019 Super Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee partnered with the local arts organization WonderRoot to create 30 murals highlighting the city’s history in civil rights and social justice. Many of these works are still up today; several have become highly visible landmarks as you traverse the streets. But the mural that hit me the hardest came down sometime about a year ago, which breaks my heart all over again because it became a site for quiet reflection in a time of great pain. Pre-pandemic, I didn’t spend much time in Downtown Atlanta, but in March and April of 2020, with the young baby needing early morning car seat naps, we would often be found snaking through the eerily empty streets. We found a route that would eventually lead to 40 minutes of us as the lone car in a parking lot on Pryor Street, me sitting, my son napping, in the shadow of Sheila Pree Bright’s mural diptych Mothers March On.

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