Council holds off on discussion of 'Black Lives Matter' street painting

The City Council on Wednesday has pushed back its discussion on the fate of the “Black Lives Matter” street painting for at least another week.

Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper told the Tulsa World before the council’s afternoon committee meeting that she wanted more time to examine what legal mechanisms other cities have used to retain their “Black Lives Matter” street paintings.

“I want to see how they went about or they are going about doing that,” Hall-Harper said. “Are they, too, going to request or accept these murals as government speech? And just finding more out about that process.”

Tulsa was one of many cities across the country that saw “Black Lives Matter” signs painted on streets in the wake of the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis.

Activists painted Tulsa’s BLM sign along Greenwood Avenue without the city’s permission on the eve of Juneteenth, the day before President Donald Trump’s campaign rally at the BOK Center.

Councilors had been scheduled to hear from the City Attorney’s Office regarding whether the free speech doctrine could be used by the city to keep the sign in the Greenwood District.

Hall-Harper and fellow Councilor Kara Joy McKee have been the council's lead advocates for maintaining the sign. McKee said Wednesday that they are working together on a permanent solution.

“In the meantime, the mural is in no danger of being removed,” McKee said.

The Mayor’s Office said Wednesday that it would not take any action on the BLM sign until councilors can deliberate on the latest proposal to retain it.

The City Attorney’s Office has advised councilors that allowing the “Black Lives Matter” sign to remain on a public street would turn Tulsa’s streets into public forums and leave the city with no option but to allow other street signs.

City officials have also pointed to federal transportation guidelines they say prohibit permanent signs on streets because they could compromise public safety.

But Hall-Harper noted that dozens of cities, including Kansas City, Missouri, have found ways to preserve their “Black Lives Matter” signs.

“I want to talk to someone at city government (in Kansas City) or a councilor or whomever to verify and get more in-depth information that I can share with my fellow councilors,” she said.

Hall-Harper said she also wants to use the additional time to get answers to questions other councilors have expressed about keeping the BLM sign.

“If there is an accident, can the citizen turn around and sue the city?” she asked.

In Pleasant Grove v. Summum, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Utah city of Pleasant Grove did not have to allow Summum, a religious organization, to erect a permanent monument in one of its parks. Summum, based in Salt Lake City, had argued that it should be allowed to place a monument with the “Seven Aphorisms of Summum” in the park that would have been similar in size to the park’s Ten Commandments monument.

The court found that because the city’s permanent Ten Commandments monument constituted a form of government speech, it was not subject to a challenge under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The ruling draws a distinction between a public forum, in which all voices must be given the opportunity to speak, and government speech, where the government has adopted a position and is not required to give equal time for other viewpoints.

Volunteers repaint the Black Lives Matter street mural after it was vandalized.