ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — On Friday night, crews with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) entered the historic Black community, known as The Deuces in St. Petersburg, to paint over the “Black History Matters” mural.

Rev. Andrew “Andy” Oliver, an activist and pastor of Allendale United Methodist Church, and Rev. Benedict Atherton-Zeman, a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of St. Petersburg, walked by officers and sat on the street mural in an attempt to block FDOT’s machinery, police said.

10 Tampa Bay News spoke to Atherton-Zeman after he and Oliver had been bonded out of jail on Saturday. He said he knelt in the middle of the mural on 9th Avenue South to pray for it to stay.

“That’s ridiculous. That goes against my morals, my conscience and my religion. I had to be there. I had to be praying,” Atherton-Zeman said.

“I hoped that if I knelt down and said my prayers that they would be answered,” he added. “I’m glad I got there before it was erased, but I’m sad I wasn’t able to pray all night.”

RELATED: St. Pete church leaders arrested after trying to block FDOT from painting over Black history street mural

The removal came following an FDOT directive, requiring that all roadways be cleared of artwork that state leaders deem is unsafe or politically and/or socially motivated.

St. Pete police say officers told Oliver and Atherton-Zeman to move multiple times, but they refused.

“When we kept praying, they hauled us off to the sidewalk and arrested us, and we spent the night in jail,” Atherton-Zeman said.

The Woodson African American Museum of Florida released a statement on Saturday, saying that although the mural is gone, their mission has not ended. The museum says it plans to continue to share and honor African American history, culture and art throughout Florida and beyond. 

“I am encouraged by this movement, this movement led by Black, Indigenous, people of color; by trans and nonbinary people, by immigrant people — by people on the margins,” Atherton-Zeman said.

FDOT is set to take down four other street murals, or markings, in St. Pete.

“I’ll just keep trying to follow their lead and learning from them, and yes — I do believe my prayers will be answered,” he said.