Inside St. Petersburg City Hall, up the grand staircase, there’s a blank space on the wall where a mural once hung. It was commissioned in 1940 and depicted African Americans in a way that most would consider racist.

“It had people with elongated arms and big huge lips that covered most their faces,” said Omali Yeshitela, founder of the Uhuru movement.

In 1966, Yeshitela was just 24-years-old and went by the name Joe Waller. He was a prominent member of the local black power movement and said the mural was a symbol of race relations at the time.

“The mural was just a grotesque caricature of African people,” Yeshitela said. “And here is was at the seat of city government.”

That year, Yeshitela and a group of protestors marched on City Hall and in a moment of anger, he and five others stormed inside and grabbed a hold of the mural.

“I just worked it so I could get a grip on it and then tore it from the wall,” Yeshitela said. “It made this thunderous sound.”

The men dragged the mural outside and the protest moved down the street. Yeshitela said he and five others were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, destruction of public property and resisting arrest.

“We were demonized and characterized as criminals when that mural came down,” he said.

Altogether, Yeshitela said he ended up serving two and a half years behind bars. Not just for tearing down the mural, but for various other arrests while protesting throughout the Civil Rights era.

“There was a movement there. And the thing that inspired this movement was the condition in the black community,” Yeshitela said. “And those conditions exist today.”

Yeshitela is still active today as the leader of the African People’s Socialist Party and said he wants to be included in the city’s latest plans to put new artwork where the mural once hung.

Bob Devin Jones, a member of the city’s Public Arts Commission, said the initial plan that set aside $10,000 for the project has been put on hold. He said the commission will now seek more funding.

Jones also said he planned to invite Yeshitela to provide input. After all, he was the one who tore the original mural he tore down all those decades ago.