Carbis Bay, England:
Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave U.S. President Joe Biden a framed photograph of a British mural depicting Black 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the British leader’s workplace stated on Thursday.
Biden reciprocated by presenting Johnson, a keen cyclist, with a U.S.-made bicycle and helmet and providing a silk scarf and leather bag made by military wives for his wife Carrie.
Johnson’s present, presented throughout a G7 summit which marks Biden’s 1st official overseas engagement and a opportunity to reaffirm trans-Atlantic ties, is a nod to the Black Lives Matter movement that has pushed race relations to the fore in each nations.
Douglass escaped slavery in the United States, going on to grow to be an abolitionist leader who toured Britain and Ireland, with which Biden has ancestral ties.
Biden cited Douglass in a 2020 speech on race at a time when the nation was confronting concerns on modern and historical racial injustice sparked by a protest movement that also spread to Britain and prompted a comparable outpouring.
The mural is painted on the wall of a residential street corner in Edinburgh, a city exactly where Douglass stayed on his tour, by artist Ross Blair who utilised the hashtag #blacklivesmatter when 1st unveiling the piece on line in 2020.
The black and white mural portrait of Douglass was photographed by dual British-U.S. national Melissa Highton.
U.S. 1st lady Jill Biden was offered a 1st edition copy of ‘The Apple Tree’ – a collection of brief stories by 20th century British author Daphne du Maurier, who lived in Cornwall, the picturesque corner of England that is hosting the G7 summit.
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