Durham Civil Rights History Mural Project

From 2013, 30 community members between the ages of 15 and 65 gathered during the 16 week period and participated in Durham's civil rights history through a series of lectures, music performances, research and design seminars. And the team gathered what they found in a collaborative mural painting design. In 2014/2015 these same people will draw this 2,400 square feet mural in the center of Durham under the guidance of mural painter Brenda Miller Holmes with the help of a larger community. This process was inspired by multimedia multi-platform educational outreach project by award winning documentary filmmaker Rodrigo Dorfman. The recorded story is personal and will reflect the past which is solving and suffering existing problems of mankind and class in transient high class cities. These stories will come from the mural painting design, and the final "story" transcends the murals themselves and enters the character's life associated with this creative process. Documentary material will also serve as the cornerstone of educational materials we intend to produce to help bring this story and process to other communities in the South.

In 2013, Durham's latest mural is created and has opportunity to participate. The Durham Civil Rights Historical Mural project is funded by a generous subsidy from the City of Durham and a series of educational seminars will be held in February under the guidance of Dr. Benjamin Spelle. Dr. Sperr served as Dean of Library and Information Science Department at North Carolina Chuo University from 1983 to 2004. From 2000 to 2004 he was a scholar of Durham's civil rights history and served as the president of Durham. These seminars are open to the public free of charge. Together we learned about the deep history of Durham and 30 community participants will cooperate under the guidance of mural painter Brenda Miller Holmes and turn this knowledge into a mural painting design. Then we will cooperate to draw 800 square feet mural in downtown Durham. Do you want to join us?

Durham's civil rights mural is next to the Durham Arts Council. Artist Brenda Miller Holmes will help members of the community create various opportunities in the range of 15 to 65 to participate in this community-centered project. This painting depicts local leaders fighting for citizenship, including Dr. Aaron Moore who established the first African-American hospital in Durham and Richard Fitzgerald who succeeded Durham is. Bricklayer, Ann Atwater, civil rights activist, and leader of CP Ellis, former KKK, became Atwater's unlikely friends from apartheid supporters to apartheid