Trio of new murals spotlight change in Brunswick

Jeffery M. Glover, The Current

On Saturday, Sept. 24, Brunswick celebrated the completion of three new public murals. Artist Sheila Pree Bright worked with the Brunswick community, The New Georgia project, and Living Walls to help bring awareness to social and political struggles through the project, “Honoring the Past and Building the Future.”

The goal was to educate the community on some of the Civil Rights pioneers in their own community. Mrs. Georgia Gibbs, who’s featured on the mural on 503 Mansfield Street, was co-founder and secretary of the local NAACP in 1929.

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Georgia Gibbs, who’s featured on a mural on 503 Mansfield Street in Brunswick, was co-founder and secretary of the local NAACP chapter in 1929.

Credit: Jeffery M. Glover / The Current

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This mural, located on a building in Ahmaud Arbery Park on Townsend Street across from Whitlock Street in Brunswick, Ga., is inspired by Arbery, who was killed in 2020 while jogging in a white neighborhood nearby. The mural quotes James Baldwin: "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

Credit: Jeffrey M. Glover / The Current

The Rev. Julius Caesar Hope, whose mural faces Amherst Street on the side of 1400 Gloucester Street, was an African American pastor who played a major role in desegregating public areas around Brunswick. The third mural is inspired by Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was killed while running in a white neighborhood nearby.

Running is symbolic of moving forward, Bright said, and it is also a symbol of resilience, as African Americans are a resilient people. The mural is located on a building in Ahmaud Arbery Park, on Townsend Street across from Whitlock Street with a quote from James Baldwin.

Bright said she is happy to bring the community together, and even if she can inspire one person, she would consider it an honor.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with The Current.