FRAMINGHAM — Late last February, just before the pandemic took hold, a group of Framingham families met at the Pelham Learning Center at an event celebrating Black History Month.
The event was hosted by Discovering Hidden Gems, a Framingham group that was formed in 2018 to help nourish and foster the city’s typically underserved youth and minority communities.
As part of the day’s activities, about 30 children came together to contribute to a large interactive art piece. Each child had been given a piece of paper to design, color and make his or her own. Features in the pieces of papers were drawings of historic Black Americans, as well as inventions credited to have been created by Black inventors.
The plan was to put all of the papers together to create a large mural celebrating and showcasing the history of Black American progress in the country, the state and in Framingham.
The group wanted to have it all completed and displayed by early March.
But when the pandemic hit, places like Framingham’s Memorial Building and the public library were closed to the public. For nearly a year, the large art piece has not been shown to the public.
But that changes Wednesday when the completed mural will be on display from noon to 2 p.m. at Nevins Hall inside the Memorial Building.
“The purpose is so that the youth in Framingham can see themselves in the process,” said Margie Rosario, co-founder of Discovering Hidden Gems. “We have (on the poster) ‘Black history is the United States history. Black history is Massachusetts history. Black history is Framingham history.’”
Included in the now-completed mural is a drawing of Framingham Mayor Yvonne Spicer, the first popularly elected African American woman to become mayor in the state. It also features Crispus Attucks, a Framingham man who is said to be have been the first person to have been killed in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.
Rosario said the point of the mural is to show kids the progress that has been made.
“A lot of the time, they feel forgotten or neglected in a way and feel like their life isn’t important,” she said.
The mural helps challenge that idea, she said.