mural of Frederick Douglass in South Baltimore w/ Baltimore Ravens logo & train

On a recent sojourn to Baltimore I caught glimpse of a Frederick Douglass mural I don’t recall seeing before. Based upon the condition of the mural I can deduce it has likely been there for several years. My imprecise guess would be the mural is from five to ten years old.

A brief review revealed no information on its date of installation nor the artist(s) who painted it. Maybe this mural was the result of a community service project?

In artistic appeal the mural is quite simple. On a whitewashed canvass behind a community tennis court, from left to right there is an old steam railroad engine followed by passengers car, presumably a B&O train, Baltimore Ravens logo and head shot of an older Frederick Douglass. The only text on the mural is the oft-repeated Douglass quote from an 1857 speech, “If there is no struggle there is no progress.”

This is the second Douglass mural we have seen in Baltimore over the past month or so. We hope to continue to see Douglass represented in public art and murals in the city so consequential in forging and forming the direction of his celebrated life.

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image courtesy of Lost History Associates. JHM