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.
Among 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.
“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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