ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Amid the unrest in our country, one community leader is hoping to spread a message of unity through a community mural.
Orangeburg lawyer and South Carolina representative Justin Bamberg has a new piece of art outside of his law office on the corner of Doyle St. and Hwy 301.
“It’s a message of unity among a community. It’s a message of hope, and it’s a message of power," Bamberg told Street Squad. "We're in trying times right now, and we wanted to do something that’s meaningful, impactful and send a very strong message. And that’s when we came up with the theme injustice ends.”
Bamberg reached out to his former high school art teacher and local artist Damion Johnson who took his words directly to the mural, “He told me, he said he couldn’t draw but he had some words. He gave me some words to kind of build the image off of.”
The oak tree in the image represents the deep roots of community and the branching of relationships. Bamberg elaborates, “And what this mural represents is bigger than paint on the side of the building. There’s a very big message there. Everything was chosen for a specific reason and we hope that for years to come whenever someone rides by it, they take a second and think ‘am I doing my part to stop the injustices we see every day?’”
The mural itself was done on 16 pieces of steel after Johnson realized the pebble on the side of the building would be hard to paint on.
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