A Black Lives Matter display in Hackney has been repeatedly damaged by graffiti vandals.

Hackney Gazette: Graffiti on the Black Lives Matter banner. Picture: New UnityGraffiti on the Black Lives Matter banner. Picture: New Unity (Image: Archant)

New Unity, a nonreligious church in Newington Green, has twice had to clean words reading “stop dividing us” off a Black Lives Matter poster on the front of its Meeting House.

As the display is covered with Perspex glass, staff have been able to clean the words off each time.

Minister at the church, Andy Pakula, said: “This damage shows that even in Newington Green, an area rightly known for its radical heritage, the idea that Black lives matter still faces big opposition.

“We continue to stand with Black people in Newington Green and beyond, and will always work to build a more loving and just world in which structural racism is dismantled.”

Before the church was renovated, Andy said, it displayed a Black Lives Matter sign which was ripped down by vandals.

“They say it is dividing us,” Andy added. “The truth is we are already divided and this is the only way to heal our society.”

The Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum all around the world following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white policeman in Minneapolis.

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