Absolute Equality Juneteenth Mural (2024)
- Partners for Historical Justice
- Jan 14
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 16
Title
Absolute Equality Juneteenth Mural (2024)
Artist
Reginald C. Adams
Location
Mural painted on wall below basketball court (overlooking Howard Street) of
Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School, 2427 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE, Washington, DC 20020, Ward 8.
Description
The mural is centered on a quote by Frederick Douglass, “Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places.” Read left to right, the work begins with one of the infamous motif diagrams of packed captive bodies within the interior of a slave ship, moving onto the silhouetted cityscape of Washington DC, out of which arms are raised in Black Power fists of solidarity, into a red sky that is filled with shapes that might evoke fireworks or ancient African ritual symbols. After the Douglass quote we encounter the heart-shaped Sankofa symbol, derived from the Adinkra visual repertoire of the Akan peoples of Ghana, honoring the work of memory and retrieval. The far right is a close up of the eyes of Frederick Douglass, drawing on one of the most famous late photographs of him.
For background on the artist, see:
For background on the mural, see: https://www.washingtonfamily.com/juneteenth-mural-unveiled-in-d-c-s-anacostia-neighborhood/
Background on the Frederick Douglass quote, “Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places.”
Whether intended or not, the quote by Frederick Douglass is deeply ironic. The line is taken from his hard-hitting oration upon the unveiling of the Freedman’s Monument in Lincoln Park, a work analyzed elsewhere in the Re-Envisioning Blackness guide: https://www.tourdeforcedc.com/post/lincoln-park-memorials
Douglass minces no words in critiquing Lincoln’s limitations, even as he honors him. The fuller passage reads: “Truth is proper and beautiful at all times and in all places and it is never in any case more proper and beautiful than when one is speaking of a great public man whose example is likely to be commended for honor and imitation long after his departure to the solemn shades,--the silent continents of eternity. It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory, that Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought and in his prejudices, he was a white man. He was preëminently the white man's President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men.”
(The full speech is reprinted as an appendix to Douglass’s 1882 autobiography).
Douglass was certainly troubled by the monument, which shows a clothed, standing Lincoln granting the blessings of liberty to a kneeling, nearly naked enslaved Black man, with no visual references to the active role Black Americans had played in securing their own freedom, through activism and force of arms.
The quote, “Truth is proper and beautiful at all times and in all places, “ over time has become increasingly divorced from its original context of use, and now generally stands as a generalized call for truth-telling. Yet it retains the historical force of speaking unpalatable truths to power.
Interpretive Notes
The mural speaks to the particular history of Anacostia, directly across the river from the major center of (historically white) power in Washington DC. The slave ship evokes the many slave voyages into the coastal areas of Virginia and Maryland from 1619 onwards. The skyline of the governmental sites of power, as viewed from across the river, is punctuated by Black Power fists emphasizing that the people of Ward 8 remain proud and resilient in the face of a long history of oppression. The Sankofa sign signals that the legacies of African ancestral memory endures. Located several blocks below Frederick Douglass’s residence (now a National Historic Site), the Douglass quote and his searing eyes honor Douglass within the neighborhood that he helped to shape. Elements drawn from Washington DC’s flag emphasize the city’s pride, even though it continues to endure taxation without representation.
Prompts for Close Looking
What sensations do you have looking at the close-up detail of Frederick Douglass’s eyes? Is he watching you and all of us? What does he expect us to accomplish?
Reflect on the quote by Frederick Douglass, “Truth is proper and beautiful at all times and in all places.” What would be an example, right now, of truth-telling that is difficult to do, but absolutely necessary and thus becomes “beautiful”?
What are the “truths” being shown on the mural: about the history of the slave trade and enslavement, about the long struggle of Black resistance, and about connections to ancient ancestral tradition?
Why might the artist have chosen to place this mural next to the Thurgood Marshall Academy? What connections might be suggested between Douglass and Marshall?
Consider the relationship between the outlined shapes of captives on the slave ship and the outlines of the raised Black Power fists? Is there a sense in which a history of defiance and empowerment, partially forged in the slave hold, is continuing across time?
What is being accomplished or suggested by the red and orange colors of the sky in the mural, over the skyline of DC? Might this be a reference to the fireworks on the Fourth of July, and the unfinished promise of the Declaration of Independence? (Might there even be a connection to Douglass’ famous 1852 speech, “What to the Negro is the Fourth of July?" (https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/frederick-douglass-meaning-july-fourth/) in which he argued that for enslaved Black Americans, the celebration of American independence is a bitter reminder of white hypocrisy?)
Think about the relationship between image and text in this mural. In what ways do these visual images complement or deepen the power of the Douglass quote?
Learn more about the organization Absolute Equality and its support for consciousness-raising murals at
Comments