Those visiting the White House, Black Lives Matter Plaza, or the surrounding areas in our nation’s capital may soon notice a temporary art installation celebrating the voices behind the Black Lives Matter movement in Washington, D.C.
Surrounding its historic headquarters building just steps from the White House, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday began erecting a temporary installation preserving the Black Lives Matters signs, messages and artwork that had grown into an organic gallery across the street from Lafayette Park.
Working in partnership with local preservationists, the U.S. Chamber also began the process of preserving the Black Lives Matter signs displayed on construction scaffolding in recent weeks. The U.S. Chamber will thoughtfully safeguard the mosaic of signs, photography, and painted murals. The office of Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the District’s Department of Public Works will remove the artifacts for future exhibits on diversity and inclusion in the local D.C. area. The DC Public Library and Howard University are already in talks to preserve the artifacts, and other leading museums already have signed on to work with the U.S. Chamber.
Following the preservation, the U.S. Chamber will begin installing banners displaying photographs of the signs and artwork to temporarily display and commemorate the demonstrations.
The U.S. Chamber will continue to drive a national conversation on racial inequality and is committed to showing how the business community can help close opportunity gaps for Black Americans through our Equality of Opportunity Initiative, through which the U.S. Chamber and more than 500 partner organization across the country are pursuing bold policy actions and private sector solutions to help close race-based opportunity gaps in four critical areas: education, employment, entrepreneurship, and criminal justice.
To learn more about this initiative and how you can get involved, visit https://www.uschamber.com/equality-of-opportunity-initiative.
