'Black Lives Matter' Graffiti Hits Confederate Statue Near Baltimore Art College

BALTIMORE (AP) — Someone painted the words “Black Lives Matter” on a statue honoring Confederate soldiers in Baltimore.

The Baltimore Sun ( http://bsun.md/1JeArnA ) reports the words in yellow paint covered an etched message Monday on the statue that was erected by the Maryland Daughters of the Confederacy in February 1903.

Those who live, work and study in the area had mixed reactions to the message being written on the statue, which is across the street from the campus of Maryland Institute College of Art. This statue is one of several such statues devoted to the Confederacy in the city.

The Confederate flag has come under new criticism following last week’s shooting by a white man at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, that killed nine people. The “Black Lives Matter” message was spray-painted on the stone pedestal of a Confederate statue there.