Macon artists install mural around Confederate monument on Cotton Avenue

Editor’s note: Mayor Robert Reichert has extended his Executive Order to allow the public art installation at the Confederate monument at the corner of Second Street and Cotton Avenue and the one around the monument in the median park at First and Poplar Streets to stay up through 6 p.m. July 14.

As a teacher of art at the Tubman Museum, Tiara Ponce wants to make sure her child and the children she teaches have a chance to grow up in a world where people love each other.

“It gives my baby a chance to live, to know that she’ll have a chance, that she won’t be discriminated against. It’s personal. It’s super personal, but it’s for us,” Ponce said, with tears in her eyes. “I don’t want this to be something that she’s fighting when she’s older.”

Ponce, along with other Macon artists, painted a mural Friday that surrounded the Confederate monument at the corner of Cotton Avenue and Second Street.

A meaningful day

The statue of an anonymous Civil War soldier was defaced earlier this week after the Tubman Museum and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard signs were vandalized.

The #BlockTheHate event happened on Juneteenth to celebrate unity and reclaim the area currently occupied by the statue, according to the Facebook event. Juneteenth celebrates the abolition of slavery in the U.S. and dates back to June 19, 1865 when Union Gen. Gordon Ranger read a proclamation in Galveston, Texas declaring the end of the Civil War and freedom for slaves.

The installation protects the statue from future attempts to deface it because that costs the city money, but it also represents a message of love, Ponce said.

“A lot of times people use these statues to show hate, to show maybe a distaste for people, or maybe Oh, I would like to have a prideful moment in those past times not realizing that those same past times are extremely disrespectful to people’s elders in this community,” she said. “We need people to know that love conquers all.”

Approved by the city

The installation has been approved by the city through a permit and by an executive order from Mayor Robert Reichert through June 23 with the ability to extend the order, according to a news release.

“The past several weeks, I have been so proud of the overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations held by our community to move us all forward,” Reichert said in the release. “This peaceful act will be allowed to continue, and we are going to support people having the difficult conversations that will make us better as people and as a community.”

Community members, including Macon-Bibb County District 8 Commissioner Virgil Watkins and Urban Development Authority Executive Director Alex Morrison, attended the event.

“I’m happy that we have other people with the same mission, and everyone does not always look like you,” she said. “Working with everyone here is a dream come true honestly. I’m excited to know that I have such amazing vibes that I’m surrounded by and so many people to work with in the future, so I feel like I’ve built a dream team.”

Reclaiming the park

Cliff McDonald, who has lived in Macon for six years, created the frame and helped put together the plywood for the artists to paint.

“People call this Dog [expletive] Park, because it’s a dog [expletive]statue, and they just let the dog [expletive]. Let’s bring it back and let it be a community park that we can come to and enjoy without people having to feel ashamed or even not feel comfortable,” he said. “I’ve always lived my life by the golden rule, like always treat others how you want to be treated, and that’s all I’ve ever asked anybody else to do.”

The mural should withstand the weather for around six month to a year as long as no one intentionally tears it down, McDonald.

The mural comes after several other acts of art activism in Macon, including a movement to have a Black Lives Matter mural painted on one of Macon’s streets.

As the #BlockTheHate mural was being erected, shouts of disgust and support came from passing cars, and Ponce responded by shouting “We love you.”

“This is a project that represents everyone, represents Black Lives Matter, and we want people to understand that when we say that it’s not a… everybody else doesn’t matter, but right now we are dealing with a crisis,” she said. “We have to even the playing field.”

This story was originally published June 20, 2020 at 7:30 AM.