ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There is a stone for George Floyd.
And one for Ahmaud Arbery.
The painted names of Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice are among the tributes, too.
Dozens and dozens of men and women, so many black lives lost due to senseless acts of violence, are memorialized on hundreds of painted stones gathered under a palm tree in St. Petersburg’s Crescent Lake Park.
There is a sign there: “Take a name & learn their story.”
“I didn’t know what it was at first,” says Dot Williams, a nanny walking two little boys around the lake. “But when I read the names — oh, it was just beautiful.”
Dot made sure not to waste the moment on her young charges.
“It was a teaching moment,” Williams says. “I wanted to tell them how this happened and why this happened."
This powerful Black Lives Matter memorial was created by a woman who wishes to remain anonymous.
She took a few weeks painting the names on stones as a way to process her own pain caused by horrific events.
It was also a way to educate her family and her community on all these people. All these black lives taken away too soon. All these names that should never be forgotten.
FINDING THE MEMORIAL: The painted rocks can be found under a lakefront palm tree on the Crescent Lake Drive side of the park, just around the corner from the playground.
