DURHAM, NC — City of Durham officials are going to be working hard today to clean up some graffiti that has some people in the community very upset.
The spray painted words “Back Lives Do Matter And Neither Does Your Vote” were still visible on a brick wall Thursday morning in Durham.
The original message was somewhat different.
At one point, the words read “Back Lives Don’t Matter And Neither Does Your Vote.”
Someone spray painted those words Wednesday on a wall at Main and Fayetteville streets.
Similar graffiti was found about a quarter of a mile away on Fayetteville Street, but also had the words “Wake Up!”
Hundreds of people pass both spots each day.
Some in the community expressed their displeasure with the words.
JC’s Kitchen is right next to where one of the walls was tagged.
Phyllis Terry’s family has owned the restaurant for 25 years.
“JC” in the restaurant’s name stands for “Jesus Christ” and she says her business is not just about good food, but about being good to the community.
This is not the message she wants to next to her business.
“It is not my desire to have my people to feel this way because they are important and I want to stress again that we matter and our vote does count,” said Terry.
City officials will work to clean the graffiti off the walls later today.
Terry says she wants her community to know black lives do matter and their votes do count.
In Tuesday’s election, Durham County was marred by voting issues. The County Board of Elections had to manually input 90,000 votes late in the night.
Hillary Clinton carried the county with nearly 79 percent of the vote over Donald Trump.
