'Black Lives Matter' mural being painted in Downtown Orlando

‘Black Lives Matter’ to be painted on road

The City of Orlando is having people from all different backgrounds come out to help paint the Black Lives Matter mural downtown.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The City of Orlando has started work on a “Black Lives Matter” mural overlay on Rosalind Avenue, adjacent to Lake Eola Park.

Stenciling for the words began Thursday with a possible unveiling sometime over the weekend.

Work begins on a "Black Lives Matter" mural to be painted across Rosalind Avenue in Downtown Orlando, Thursday, June 25, 2020.

Orlando is following a trend involving other cities across the country to paint similar murals on major roadways that would be visible from a bird's-eye view.

The murals come after weeks of protests over the death of George Floyd and calls for police reform and racial equality.

A city spokesperson says that the mural will be painted in the colors of the Pan-African flag, which are red, black, and green.

District 5 City Commissioner Regina Hill said the idea came from community activists, and she spearheaded the effort with the city. She said anyone from the community is welcome to the event, which will serve as a symbolic gesture to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. "I think us coming together and unifying, and saying there is something we can do together starting right now is powerful," she said. "But it's what we do after the mural that is going to be more signicant."

Commissioner Hill said the project will cost the city $20,000. According to Hill, similar projects, like the rainbow bandshell at Lake Eola Park which was painted after the Pulse masacre, had similar costs.

Similar murals have popped up around the nation in cities such as Austin, Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, New York, Seattle, and St. Petersburg, to name a few. (pictured below)

An aerial photo shows a mural reading "Black Lives Matter" painted on a bike path on June 19, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

Seventeen black artists and their assistants paint a Black Lives Matter mural on Plumb Street at the footsteps of City Hall, Thursday, June 18, 2020, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. (Photo by Jason Whitman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Volunteers paint New York City's second Black Lives Matter mural between Borough Hall and the 120th Precinct in the Borough of Staten Island on June 19, 2020, (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP) (Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images)

A mural on Pine Street spelling BLACK LIVES MATTER is painted along a block in an area dubbed the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) on June 12, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)