‘She gave people a voice.’ Mural honors Lexington activist Anita Franklin.

Lexington activist Anita Franklin passed away in 2020, but her mission carries on, immortalized in paint.

After Franklin’s son Antonio was shot and killed seven years ago in Lexington’s Duncan Park, she worked tirelessly to bring attention to gun violence and its effect on the city.

Franklin spent the years after her son’s death speaking publicly and organizing marches, working alongside organizations like Moms Demand Action Kentucky to raise public awareness of the issue. She was also an employee of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.

Franklin died in February 2020, but local visual artist Keaton Young is ensuring that her legacy lives on.

Young, in conjunction with the sheriff’s office, Franklin’s family and nonprofit organization LexArts, is creating a mural honoring Franklin in the park where Antonio was killed.

“The true inspiration for this mural is Anita Franklin, her movement to stop the gun violence and the senseless killing going on here in Lexington,” Young said. “She took action, and her action is still moving even today as she is not here, so I figured I’d help out in that movement.”

The process

Young said he was contacted by LexArts in late summer 2020 to install a mural in Franklin’s honor, and he began work on it in May 2021. Nathan Zamarron, LexArt’s community arts director, said Young’s design had to be approved by the organization and Franklin’s family.

Although Young said he was “elated” to have been selected to create the mural, he said the project comes with a degree of pressure.

“When you’ve been selected to do a portrait of anyone, especially someone of this caliber, it’s something that you have to get right,” he said. “You can’t mess it up, because people are gonna look to it and they are either going to say ‘Who is that?’ or they’re gonna say ‘Oh, that’s Miss Anita.’”

Young is still in the process of finishing the mural, and donations are being accepted in Franklin’s honor to help complete the project.

The mission behind the mural

Sheriff Kathy Witt said she hopes the mural serves as an extension of Franklin’s work and will “change lives.”

“[Franklin] recognized that we then, and were are now even more, in a battle to save our children’s lives here in this community and across America,” she said. “It’s going to take all of us, we’re all going to have to commit to doing something to save our kids.”

Witt said Franklin loved Duncan Park, even though it was where her son was killed, and she would have peace walks and pick up litter throughout the park.

“It was just a place that was so important to her, and so to see her face up there, I know that it is going to have a positive impact on the kids that play here,” she said. “This is going to be just a beautiful tribute to everything that she was and continues to be ... She was just an amazing person.”

Franklin’s other son, Ricardo, said the mural represents his mother’s vision for Lexington, saying she wanted to “make an impact” in her community.

“I feel like she represents the people. She gave people a voice; she wanted people to be heard,” he said.

Young said that while he did not know Franklin personally, he believes she would tell him “thank you” for the mural.

“That’s enough for me,” he said.