Friday, May 27, 2016



IL: Mural of lynching taken out of public view

Once again history must be erased

A mural in Elgin that has been in place for 10 years and was modeled after the photograph of a lynching, has raised questions about its origin.

A controversial mural that depicts a crowd watching a 1930 lynching will move to the Hemmens Cultural Center, Kristine Rogowski, Elgin communications director, said Friday.

Councilwoman Tish Powell said the decision was made Friday afternoon to move the mural to Hemmens sooner rather than later.

A number of factors contributed to the decision to move it, including the threat of vandalism and how some are interpreting and reacting to the piece.

"We want to encourage people to come to the two meetings we have set up to talk about the mural," Powell said.

Elgin may have dropped the ball in not noting the meaning of the city-commissioned work when it was first put on exhibit more than 10 years ago, Powell said.

Elgin City Manager Sean Stegall, who was assistant city manager at the time of the commission, said he could not recall discussion of matters related to the content of the works of art.

The artist behind the Elgin mural that depicts a portion of a famous photo of a lynching of two black men in Indiana said the piece was intended to get people to ask questions, think about issues and consider their own place in history.

"The idea here was talking about lynching, asking questions, the history," artist David Powers said. "You don't want to be on that wall with these monsters. Anywhere. In any town."

SOURCE 



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, Blacks want to keep throwing slavery and discrimination in our faces to make us feel guilty, but they also want to erase any other evidence that slavery and discrimination existed??

Bird of Paradise said...

Their voting demacrat voting for the party of slavery and the KKK

Anonymous said...

Ya damned if you do and damned if ya don't!

Anonymous said...

The number of blacks lynched in the 1800 & 1900's is a smaller portion of the total. Most of those hung without a judicial review were white. While the noose has been claimed as a symbol of oppression by progressives it took more white lives than black. When there are no real consequences for taking a life people get murdered as happens frequently in the gang warfare in the United States.


MDH

Anonymous said...

I suspect the move to the museum is the first step before it is hidden forever.
If no-one is ever allowed to know about these things, discuss and debate them, and learn from and move on from them - then how can we move forward? How can we be sure that we learn the lessons of the past and never repeat them?
This mural was clearly intended to make people question how these people could just stand by and watch - but now that question will not be posed and certainly won't be answered.
Painful issues like these shouldn't be hidden - they should be unmasked and confronted.

Anonymous said...

African-Americans don't want to heal the past. They want to hold it over the heads of white Americans forever as a cudgel to get what they want politically regardless of the best interests of the country. Obama was elected out of guilt and look at the destruction he has wrought. If Clinton is elected she will continue to destroy the country.