Angela M. Rivers and her family have a deep history in Champaign County.Originally settling in the Homer environs in the nineteenth century, the Nelson family (Angela's larger extended family) were farmers in rural Champaign County. They moved to the city of Champaign during the 20th century and to Park Street shortly thereafter. Angela's father, Al Rivers, was the first African-American employed in the Champaign Police Department. Angela went to school at Champaign Central and earned a B.F.A. In Fine and Applied Arts from UIUC in 1975.

After working on the mural in 1978 she went to Eastern Illinois to pursue graduate studies on Paul Gauguin, where she graduated in 1981. In the 1980s Angela helped start an organization called Symmetry that sought to unite the African-American arts community in Champaign-Urbana and East Central Illinois. She has also worked in a variety of contexts as an art educator, art historian, and independent historian of family history and African-American history more generally. She has worked at the DuSable Museum of African-American History, the Chicago History Museum, Brookfield Zoo, and the Dallas Museum of African American Culture and History, among others.

"My family's history is an intricate part of the history of African Americans in Champaign County, with my mother's side of the family arriving just after the Civil War from Vigo County, Indiana. I grew up with stories about family members participating in numerous wars, building homes and lives, having farms and businesses. A great grandfather was a deputy sheriff at the turn of the last century and a grandfather who was the first black policeman of Champaign.   Because of this it was important to me to show in the mural that we as African Americans had a history in Champaign; arriving in the county to help build and maintain the railways, owned farms and became productive members of the greater community. The mural for me has been a reminder of that history."

Angela Rivers Talk at the Park Street Muraland Bethel A.M.E in Champaign (October 14, 2009): Part 1

Angela Rivers Talk at the Park Street Mural and Bethel A.M.E in Champaign (October 14, 2009): Part 2

Angela Rivers Talk at the Park Street Mural and Bethel A.M.E in Champaign (October 14, 2009): Part 3

Angela Rivers Talk at the Park Street Mural and Bethel A.M.E in Champaign (October 14, 2009): Part 4

Angela Rivers Talk at the Park Street Mural and Bethel A.M.E in Champaign (October 14, 2009): Part 5

Angela Rivers Talk at the Park Street Mural and Bethel A.M.E in Champaign (October 14, 2009): Part 6