Trailblazing Black Firefighter Got A Shock At Mural Unveiling: She Had Been 'Whitewashed'

BOYNTON BEACH, FL — The city of Boynton Beach has agreed to pay $80,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a trailblazing Black firefighter who was depicted as white on a mural commissioned by the city.

The city was embroiled in a racial firestorm after the June 2020 unveiling of the mural, based on a photograph of Latosha Clemons, who is Black, and two white female firefighters. Clemons, who retired last year after 26 years, was the city’s first and only Black female firefighter.

When the mural was completed, all three faces were white. The city art commission project also depicted former Fire Chief Glenn Joseph, who is Black, as a white man.

Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he appreciates Clemons’ decision to settle the lawsuit, which claimed defamation and negligence in the city’s handling of the whitewashed mural.

“What happened to Latosha is inexcusable,” Grant told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday. “I’m appreciative she was able to make this offer to the city of Boynton Beach so everyone can move forward.”

Clemons had accused the city of “whitewashing” her image and said Monday in a statement released by her attorney that she “deserved to be recognized for who I am: a Black woman.”

Clemons, now 48, said the experience at the unveiling was “humiliating, painful and demoralizing,”and that “after providing the city of Boynton Beach with a lifetime of professional fire service, to be whitewashed and not memorialized for who I am will forever live with me.”

The mural was removed a day after it was unveiled. The city fired the public arts manager, Debby Coles-Dobay, and removed Matthew Petty as fire chief, the Palm Beach Post reported. Petty later resigned from the fire department.

At the time, Clemons’ attorney, Nicole Hunt Jackson, said her client was “whitewashed on a wall that should have been representative of the city.” Jackson also accused City Manager Lori LaVerriere of being aware of the decision to change the faces from Black to white, an allegation she denies, WPTV reported.

The city has since apologized and has replaced the mural with authentic depictions, but Jackson told WPTV “the damage to Ms. Clemons has already been done.”

This tweet shows the mural as unveiled:

In her lawsuit against Boynton Beach, filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court in April and amended in September, Clemons said her likeness was intentionally depicted as white, “a race the city presumably felt better fit the image it was trying to project.”

“The actions of the city were done intentionally and knowingly to defame and injure Clemons,” according to the lawsuit, which also states the whitewashing “completely disrespected all that Clemons … had accomplished and “also demonstrated disrespect” for the large population of Black residents of Boynton Beach.

In an email Monday to The New York Times, Boynton Beach lawyer James A. Cherof said he could not comment on pending litigation. However, he pointed to a Sept. 21 response to the lawsuit stating the employees responsible for the project did not adhere to the original design and were acting outside their authority without the knowledge and consent of the city.

Boynton Beach, which is located about 60 miles north of Miami in Palm Beach County, has a population of about 78,000 people.