CAHOKIA, Ill. — On the wall of the Cahokia High School gym is a picture worth more than three words, but that's how many were painted over: “Black Lives Matter.”
“I'm not surprised at all,” said Cbabi Bayoc.
The celebrated artist and St. Louisan was commissioned, thanks to a community grant, to paint a “diversity, equity, and inclusion” themed mural in Cahokia. After he said some symbols and themes were rejected at the original location, he said he was invited to paint a wall at the high school. He met with students via Zoom before the project to get their input.
“Some of the images that came up on the mural was based on their own sketches,” he said. “A lot of them had 'Black Lives Matter.' They had people with a mask on. They had the fist.”
“The main thing was just about being treated fairly and being seen,” said Bayoc. “That's what they wanted.”
After the project, Bayoc said he met with administrators and donors who wanted to bring up an issue.
“We knew before they even said it that it's not the whole mural, they don't want to see, the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ on a mural.”
5 On Your Side spoke on the phone with the district superintendent Friday afternoon, Arnett Harvey. He said the phrase was not covered due to a complaint, and that he can only discuss limited details of the issue at this time.
Bayoc said students were expecting a meeting to weigh in on how to move forward. Then, in an unexpected collaboration, the phrase was blacked out. Earlier this week, some students walked out of school in protest.
“I don't feel like they did it to my work,” Bayoc said. “I feel like they did it to the work that the children, the kids, wanted to see on the wall.”
Arnett said he plans to speak with some student leaders this upcoming week to talk about what to do moving forward and to address their concerns. He said he wishes they had more opportunity to talk before "adjustments" were made, but said the administration has to stay neutral for all students.
Bayoc said he thinks the layer of black paint speaks volumes.
“These are high school students. So they're I mean, they're steps away from adulthood,” he said. “It's good to not have a false idea of what's happened in their community and that they get to see the foolishness that's in charge of what's happening in their schools."
Even if that resulted in a call to Bayoc to ask him to help heal the image? He said the damage has been done—and should stay.
“I think the students themselves can put the words back up as they wanted to, but I don't think it's necessary. I think the fact that it was up there and it's gone, says everything."