Throwback Tulsa: Demonstrators paint ‘BLM’ in front of City Hall to protest removal of Greenwood street mural one year ago today – Tulsa World

Dashing into the street in front of City Hall, Black Lives Matter demonstrators quickly unfolded a template and opened buckets of yellow paint one year ago today.

A pair of police cars, lights flashing, appeared almost immediately. But by the time uniformed officers were ordering demonstrators out of the street, or you will be arrested, the paint was down and the template was being pulled up.

The letters BLM remained. City workers, however, power washed the pavement less than two hours later, trying to erase the letters after demonstrators had left the area.

The Black Lives Matter rally had begun at the so-called Center of the Universe, a landmark pedestrian bridge in downtown Tulsa, where about 50 demonstrators gathered late Saturday morning.

Speakers condemned the city for removing a Black Lives Matter mural from the pavement on Greenwood Avenue, put there without a permit just days before President Donald Trumps June 20 rally at the BOK Center.

Systemic racism is real, said Alicia Andrews, chairwoman of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, during Saturdays rally. Its part of everything we do.

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Throwback Tulsa: Demonstrators paint 'BLM' in front of City Hall to protest removal of Greenwood street mural one year ago today - Tulsa World