Black history murals taken for safe keeping

Murals honouring prominent people in Windsor's Black community will be handed over to the city to be preserved somewhere in Sandwich Towne.

CBC News has learned two people took the mural panels down, off the west wall of the Westside Foods grocery store building Saturday, fearing the new owner of the closed store was not going to keep them.

The murals, which are the property of the City of Windsor, were in storage at Science City in the former Forster high school. The city has now taken possession of them.

"They mean a lot to the community," said former city councillor Ron Jones. "Certainly the history of the African Canadians go back hundreds of years."

CBC has reached out to the new owner of the building, but has not received a response as of yet.

Jones says he's in the process of forming a committee to support finding the murals a new home. 

The panels feature pictures of historic figures such as athlete Fred Thomas, Alton Parker (the city's first Black detective), and Underground Railroad activist and newspaper owner Mary Shadd.

Newly elected Ward 2 councillor Fabio Costante is pledging his support. 

"There's a lot of history there," he says. "The history of Sandwich is greatly embedded in those murals so it's critically important we preserve them and they are displayed in a prominent place here in Sandwich," added Costante, who will work with the committee to find the new home.

"We have a rich Black culture in Sandwich Towne and there's not a lot of representation. Those murals were the most that we had really," said Sandwich community booster Teajai Travis, of Bloomfield House. He agrees the murals need to find a new home in Sandwich Towne.

The manager of cultural affairs, Cathy Masterson, is expected  to work with the community to find a new home for them.

A report will be going to city council sometime early in the new year.