A new mural for CBS News legend Ed Bradley
On a gray and dreary winter day in the city, the vibrant colors and distinguished face adorning a West Philadelphia rowhome are breathtaking and hard to miss.
"Ed Bradley and I are both graduates of Cheyney University," LeRoy McCarthy said, standing in the shadow of the Ed Bradley mural that he spent years fighting to get installed. It was unveiled on Belmont Avenue in 2018, as a tribute to the late CBS News legend in the neighborhood where Bradley grew up. "He was a man among men, a son of Philadelphia," said McCarthy. "A trailblazer in many ways."
But the site, which spans 70 feet and was once the center of a community gathering space, is now blocked by new construction.
"I was flabbergasted," said McCarthy.
"I think literally my jaw dropped," said Patricia Blanchet, Bradley's widow. She's depicted among the images in the original mural, embracing her late husband.
"A lot of people worked on this," Blanchet recalled. "The entire CBS team – both the local team and the national team, scores of school children."
The kids who contributed to painting the mural included children from the very schools where Bradley attended and worked.
Bradley was a Philadelphia school teacher disc jockey at WDAS radio before becoming a journalist, rising to national prominence as the first Black White House television correspondent, and a correspondent for "60 Minutes."
"He always talked about being extraordinarily fortunate, and encouraging others to follow their passions," Blanchet explained.
"I didn't want to see it evaporate," McCarthy said. "But a new one is coming."
With McCarthy's help, Cathy Harris, a senior project manager with Mural Arts Philadelphia, who oversaw the first project, is helping lead the new installation a few blocks away.
"We were all on board," Harris said. "We're painting all winter, and then we'll get to install it like wallpaper
Ernel Martinez designed the first piece and is recreating the new one.
"Ed was a striking guy, his physical presence and I wanted to capture some of that," Martinez said. "Vibrant colors, lots of energy, big lover of jazz music, fluidity of the energy, lots of vignettes," Martinez said of his design.
Martinez is planning the same for the new location that is set to be finished this summer. The organizers have another celebration planned just a few months from the day Bradley died 20 years ago.
When asked what her late husband would think of the honor and commitment to his legacy, Blanchet did not hesitate.
"To use one of his expressions, he would be 'tickled pink,'" she said. "This reminder of his work and his legacy and his passion and his spirit [that it] be firmly grounded in the neighborhood where he's from -- I feel incredibly blessed and honored to be able to do this again."
