Hyde Park Day Parade

Mayor's Mural Crew · 1999

Mural created in Hyde Park in 1999, directed by Heidi Schork and a group of youth artists with funding from the Mayor's Mural Crew and the Boston Youth Clean-up Corps. Painted on the side of a commercial building, the mural depicts dozens of people gathered together, some waving, holding two fingers up in peace, eating pizza, holding balloons, water bottles, laughing, and talking to each other. Behind them are trees and a stone bridge across a body of water. On the bridge, 14 black soldiers march in blue uniforms, wearing backpacks and holding rifles, one holding a sword. At the lead is a white man riding a horse. This is homage to the 54th Regiment from the American Civil War, the first all-black American regiment, whose camp was in modern-day Hyde Park. The different skin tones and ethnicities of the people gathered at the front of the mural is perhaps meant to symbolize what the 54th Regiment fought for.