A mural celebrating and honoring the Black community in Manhattan is coming together at Douglass Activity Center, at 925 Yuma St.
The full-time artist and curator EuGene Vidal Byrd III of Atlanta is painting the mural, which depicts Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, an activist who helped establish African American communities in Kansas.
The mural also features Exodusters migrating to Kansas, a graduate, a soldier from World War II and protests against police brutality in 2020.
The artist, a Wichita native, is using latex, acrylic and aerosol paints to complete it.
“It just really spoke to me about this site being the site of the first Black pool,” he said.
The Douglass Pool was the pool for Black residents during the segregated era of Manhattan’s history.
He said he researched the site and learned more about the area where the Douglass Activity Center is.
“The same thing about the pool, I went into the research about that, because they always say Black people can’t swim, ... it’s like a funny joke, but as you think about it, systematic racism had a lot to do with the reason why I can’t swim,” he said. “Today, I really can’t swim that well. ... But when I started to research, I really got into it. I was like, ‘OK, my grandfather couldn’t go to a public pool to swim at all, couldn’t even really go to public beaches.’ And even my father couldn’t, because this was just like the ’60s. My father couldn’t go to a public pool. So therefore, how is my father going to teach me to swim? And that’s not that long ago, so therefore, I’m the generation that we can kindh of swim.
“I broke that cycle with my daughter. I put her in swimming lessons and all of that. It’s just real personal. The project just really spoke to me. It’s just full circle.”
Byrd said he is on schedule with painting the mural and expects to finish it on or before May 12. After completion, the city will cover the mural and unveil it during a Juneteenth celebration on June 19.
“For three days worth of work, I think it’s fantastic,” said Kyliah Kellermann, recreation and fitness coordinator at the Douglass Activity Center, on Friday.
“I’ve been popping up watching him do what he does. I don’t know how he does it, but that’s why he’s here. I think it’s incredible.”
Kellermann said the center received six admissions from artists and members of Douglass Center Advisory Board selected Byrd out of the top three applications based on the quality of his mural proposal.
Douglass Center Director Dave Baker also expressed excitement about the mural’s progress.
“Couldn’t ask for anything more,” he said.
Byrd said one of his personal missions is to make social change through art.
“The thing I do love about murals is it touches the public,” he said. “The thing with fine art, in order for you to appreciate it, you have to already be appreciative of art just to step into a gallery. If you don’t like art, you’re not even going to go in there. But the thing about public art, it’s in a public space so everyone can enjoy it. It might even make them start to appreciate art even more by seeing it, especially representation, and seeing people that look like them on the walls. It’s the power of art.”
This is Byrd’s fourth mural. He studied graphic design at the Atlanta College of Art and has lived in Atlanta since 1996. He said he has enjoyed being in Kansas and Manhattan. This is the first time he has visited the Little Apple, he said.
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