ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A museum director’s images showing two pastors during an act of civil disobedience against the Florida Department of Transportation’s orders to remove murals painted on streets were going viral.
St. Petersburg police officers arrested Revs. Andy Oliver and Benedict Atherton-Zeman on Friday night outside of The Woodson African American Museum of Florida in the Jordan Park neighborhood.
Terri Lipsey Scott, the museum’s executive director, shared photos and released a statement saying she was in pain over the removal of the “Black History Matters” mural on Ninth Avenue, near 22nd Street.
Lipsey Scott wrote a message on Facebook, “Rev. Andy and Rev. Ben, words will never be able to describe the debt of gratitude I owe you for STANDING while KNEELING!”
The Tampa Bay Times reported that police officers had accused the pastors of blocking the state from painting over the mural, which is one of the five under an order of removal in St. Petersburg.
Related report: Protest held in Miami Beach
The mural outside of the museum was by a group of artists, including Daniel “R5” Barojas and Laura “Miss Crit” Spencer, and Eric “Esh” Hornsby, who documented symbols of dissent used during protests after the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and the 2014 deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York.
“The story of these horrid times must be preserved, presented, and interpreted, which is the mission of The Woodson,” Lipsey Scott wrote on Facebook. “I feel hopeless and helpless.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation and the FDOT are moving to get rid of markings that could distract drivers, pedestrians, and automated driving systems, which gather data about the environment to make decisions that impact public safety. The FDOT removals also included a rainbow crosswalk that was a tribute to the 49 dead at Pulse Nightclub during a Latin LGBTQ+ night in 2016 in Orlando.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested Sebastian Suarez, a tourist from Georgia, on Friday night in Orlando for defacing a traffic device after he used chalk to paint rainbows on the bottom of his shoes and crossed the street where the Pulse rainbow crosswalk used to be.
Orange County prosecutors dropped the case against Suarez, 29, after his defense argued the charge only applied to devices, and not to crosswalks,“ Click Orlando reported on Saturday.
Related story: Protest held in Fort Lauderdale
On Facebook, Atherton-Zeman, of the Unitarian Universalist Church of St. Petersburg, shared a photo of the Pinellas County corrections mug shot taken after his arrest and wrote, “Not my favorite photo, but it does capture the moment.”
Oliver, co-president of the board of directors of the Methodist Federation for Social Action, and Atherton-Zeman asked the public to engage in justice work and to help support the museum.
“That is how you can help best,” Oliver wrote.
Related social media
We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes. https://t.co/AXY1qxsZNW
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) August 21, 2025
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