HARRISBURG -- When Mike Fitzgerald woke up Sunday morning, he was disappointed by what he saw.
The Black Lives Matter mural he created on the side of a Midtown building had been vandalized overnight.
While disappointed, it’s something he thought could happen.
“I’m not surprised,” he said. “I’m not surprised in the least.”
He knew when he was coming up with the initial drawings for the mural that it was a possibility.
“It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when, and when came this morning,” he said Sunday.
The vandalism had a red, stenciled outline of the United States. Below it in blue letters was the phrase “Not Stolen. Conquered” and “patriotfront.us.”
This was spray painted overnight on the Black Lives Matter mural in Midtown Harrisburg. The group named in the vandalism is listed as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Patriot Front is identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist hate group.
But just who vandalized the mural, which is on private property, is unknown. Fitzgerald said the police were called. He believes that the vandalism would have happened early Sunday, most likely between 2 and 4 a.m.
Volunteers had originally come together last month to paint the mural on the side of the Harrisburg Improv Theatre, 1633 N. Third St. At the time, Fitzgerald, a former U.S. Army combat medic, said he was the catalyst of the idea for the mural and credited the people who came out to paint it for making it a reality.
And though vandalism defaced their work this morning, he said the mural will be restored.
“We’re going to power wash it, and we’re going to restore it,” he said. “We’re going be resilient. We’re going to come back, and we’ll come back, and we’ll come back. They’re not going to stop us.”
Volunteers join artist Mike Fitzgerald in painting over the vandalism done to the Black Lives Matter mural in Midtown Harrisburg. (Steve Marroni, PennLive.com).
Several volunteers showed up Sunday afternoon to help him fix the mural.
Along with the words “Black Lives Matter” painted across the building, the mural also features signatures and slogans from many in the community who put their affirmations on the wall, he said. Those affirmations contain messages like “After the rain, the sun will shine and from the ashes, we will rise.”
“Come back in a couple of days,” Fitzgerald said. “It will look as good as new.”
Harrisburg police could not immediately be reached for comment on the incident.
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