Historic Mural Removed From Oak Park School

OAK PARK, IL — A mural painted more than eight decades ago has been removed from Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park after school officials said it lacked diversity. The mural, which depicts dozens of white children skating and playing in the snow, caused some students to feel excluded, officials said.

Funded by the Works Progress Administration, the "Child and Sports-Winter" mural was painted by artist Ethel Spears in 1937. It has hung in Percy Julian Middle School since 2002, and before that it was in the now-closed Lowell Elementary.

After the Chicago Sun-Times broke the story, the removal sparked controversy, with some likening it to a "modern-day book burning."

In an email sent to school staff obtained by the Sun-Times, Julian Principal Todd Fitzgerald said the school made the decision after students approached staff and said it didn't represent the student body and its diversity.

“We will be working with the Social Justice Club and our parent Diversity Committee to create a mural/canvas that better represents Julian Middle School,” Fitzgerald's letter read.

Barbara Bernstein, a founder of the New Deal Art Registry, said the painting gives people a chance to learn about how much the world has changed.

"The New Deal of the 1930s, among many other accomplishments, put original, often beautiful, and always-interesting art in public places," Bernstein said. "...80 years later some of that art seems dated and possibly inappropriate to its setting. That doesn’t mean that it is bad art or that it should be removed. New Deal murals give us a great lesson in historical perspective, a chance to look at the world through the eyes of past generations so that we can talk about what has changed, what has stayed the same, and how we feel differently about things now."

Bernstein said the Oak Park community is lucky to have several WPA murals and sculptures.

"They are treasures. The loss of this charming Ethel Spears mural is very unfortunate. I’m hoping that it can find a new home," she said.

Bernstein said the mural may be reunited with its companion mural at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School.

Other WPA-funded murals have caused controversy in the past in the Chicago area. Some of the works have included images of black people and Native Americans that were deemed offensive.

Read the Chicago Sun-Times report here.