University of Kentucky to remove controversial Memorial Hall mural, president says
The University of Kentucky will begin the process of taking down the controversial Memorial Hall mural that depicts black workers — possibly slaves — planting tobacco, an email sent to the campus on Friday said.
After years of protest and heated discussion about the mural, President Eli Capilouto wrote that he was ordering the removal of the mural in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man whose killing at the hands of police has sparked days of protest and national calls for the end of police violence against people of color.
“We need to move forward. We have a lot of discussion that needs to take place on our campus,” Capilouto wrote in the email. “And those discussions cannot obviate the necessity of thoughtful, but decisive, action on a number of fronts. I don’t believe we can have that conversation with the mural still, metaphorically, on the table. And, so while in the context of many significant issues we must discuss and decide upon, the mural may appear relatively small, it carries with it tremendous symbolic weight.”
The mural also has black musicians playing for white dancers, and a Native American wielding a tomahawk.
Capilouto wrote that he will provide more details on the removal process at a later date. Black student groups at the university previously demanded the removal of the mural from the classroom building that used to house many mandatory general education classes. University officials repeatedly said the mural is a fresco that is painted into the wall. Erasing it would either mean painting over it or causing damage to the building, they said.
After prior calls for the mural’s removal, the university covered the mural with a sheet. In 2017, a plaque which mentions the historical context of the mural was added and the sheet was removed.
In early 2018, artist Karyn Olivier, created a work of art for the classroom building designed to further contextualize the mural.
But the mural was covered again by a sheet after protests in which students — calling for more on-campus opportunities for black students and the removal of the mural — occupied the main campus administrative building for a night in April 2019.
“To be sure, we have discussed the mural for many years and made a number of important, productive efforts to seek common ground and lasting solutions,” Capilouto wrote in the email to campus. “But the spaces we have created for dialogue, and the work we have commissioned to expand conversation and contextualize art, haven’t worked, frankly.”
The mural was originally created by Ann Rice O’ Hanlon in 1934.
This is a developing story.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 2:19 PM.