Written by Taryn Flaherty

_{Permit expediting services in Philadelphia.}

The Municipal Services Building is located at Broad Street and JFK Boulevard, across the street from City Hall. For decades, the Municipal Services Building has been the site of mass public protest for its visibility in the center of Philadelphia and for its representation as a key government building. Thousands have gathered here to protest monuments, political national conventions, and civil rights issues, most notably police brutality and systemic racism in the 2020 uprising that swept the nation after the killing of George Floyd by police officers.

_{Protestors attacking the Frank Rizzo statue.}

Until June 2020, in the front of the Municipal Services Building stood the Frank Rizzo statue, a commemoration of Philadelphia’s police commissioner (1967-1971) and mayor (1972-1980) who led the attack on student protestors in the 1967 Student Walkout, the 1970s police raids of the Philadelphia Black Panther Party headquarters, and the police and political harassment of the MOVE organization throughout his years as police commissioner and mayor. Over the years after the Rizzo statue was erected in 1999, there were demands by community members to remove the statue and it was continually defaced starting in 2019 to the point of Mayor Jim Kenney assigning police officers to clean and protect the statue in 2020. For many, Frank Rizzo’s statue was a physical representation of the city’s legacy of police and state violence against its people. In a time where protestors of police brutality and systemic racism were being cornered and teargassed by the police, the mayor’s police protection of the statue spoke to how Rizzo’s legacy is still very much alive. 

_{Graffiti on the Frank Rizzo statue reading “facist.”}

Even after Mayor Kenney issued an emergency removal of the statue, the Municipal Services Building continued to be a site of protest during the 2020 uprising. In June 2020, the Defund the Police Rally was held in which protestors and reporters occupied the lobby of the building and were arrested. These arrests are one of the many contemporary instances that illustrate how police and prisons are used as weapons of the state against citizens.

_{Protestors arrested after occupying the Municipal Services Building.}

The building’s location in the center of Philadelphia and its long history of protest made it an excellent choice to exhibit the Crown Mural, a dedication to the history of Black resistance and organizing in the city of Philadelphia. This 3-part mural was dedicated in May 2021 as a response to the mass protests for Black Lives Matter and against systemic racism in the 2020 uprising. Russel Craig, the artist of the mural, has been long involved in utilizing his art and talent to speak out against mass incarceration and criminal injustice. 

_{The front of Crown Mural.}

The front of the mural, Crown, honors pivotal 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the larger global movement of Pan-Africanism. Crown: Freedom, one of the sides of the mural, is dedicated to Philadelphia’s transformative Black women activists, including MOVE’s Romana Africa and Pam Africa, and BLM Philly organizer Krystal Strong. The other side, Crown: Medusa, contrasts BIPOC activists in front of the names of Black people and children killed by police, symbolizing the intergenerational trauma that is experienced and the need to heal. Craig himself is included in Crown: Medusa on the far right. Craig sought not only to demand justice and call for action but to also give space for grieving and remembrance for the harm and pain throughout these multigenerational movements against systemic racial injustice.

_{Crown: Freedom.}

The mural’s dedication ceremony in 2021 saw the attendance of many of those on its mural including Pam, Jeanine, and Janet Africa as well as Krystal Strong, YahNé Ndgo, Kezia Ridgeway, Dr. Ala Stanford, Ajeenah Amir, and Sajda Blackwell.

_{Crown: Medusa by Russell Craig.}

However, as of our recording on the last weekend in June 2022, all three parts of the mural have been removed from the Municipal Services Building without notice, without details as to where it is, why it was removed, and what will replace it. Whereas the Frank Rizzo statue stood in front of this building for decades despite the protests against it, the Crown Mural is removed in just over a year. 

_{Activists at the dedication of the Crown Mural.}

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Bibliography

Briggs, Ryan. “‘Resources better spent rebuilding’: Philly Councilmembers ask mayor to stop spending city money to protect Rizzo statue.” WHYY. 2020.

Crimmins, Peter. “Murals honoring Black activists now wrap the Municipal Services Building.” WHYY. 2021.

“Crown.” Mural Arts Philadelphia. 2020.

Grantee Cohort. “Russell Craig.” Art for Justice Fund. 2018.

Griffin, Jessica. “Former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo statue vandalized again.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. 2019.

Harden, Brandon T. “Crown’ is the new mural on the Municipal Services Building that highlights Black Lives Matter protesters.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. 2020.

Levy, Jordan. “How the protest movement engineered a takedown of the Rizzo statue after years of delay.” Billy Penn at WHYY. 2022.

Marin, Max. “Activists arrested after ‘defund the police’ rally inside Municipal Services Building, reporter also detained.” Billy Penn at WHYY. 2020.

Rushing, Ellie. “Protestors Philadelphia police teargassed on 676 in 2020 reflect a year later.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. 2021.