PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held Wednesday in South Philadelphia to celebrate a new mural that honors African-American heroes — including a little girl whose life was cut short in a tragic incident.
The new mural, called “The Faces That Shape Us,” covers the east and west walls surrounding Uncle David’s Universal Playground at 15th and Catherine Streets.
READ MORE: Detours Along Kelly Drive Through Sunday For Stotesbury, City Championship RegattasAmong the figures depicted are Frederick Douglass, Rev. Leon Sullivan, and a little girl named Shakira Hinton.
“She was my little angel,” says Shakira’s mother, Jerri Coleman, who added that Wednesday was a bittersweet day. Her daughter, a straight-A student at Universal Charter School, was killed in a family murder-suicide in 2005.
READ MORE: 5 People Shot Near Temple University, Philadelphia Police Say“I’m trying to hold back the tears,” Coleman told KYW Newsradio, “but I’m just so happy that they still think about my daughter. I think about her every day I wake up.”
The mural was developed through a partnership between Kenneth Gamble’s Universal Companies and the City of Philadelphia.
Reported by Karin Phillips, KYW Newsradio 1060
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