Mural Under Fire for Klan Depiction
Thomas Hart Benton Artwork Sparks Indiana University Debate

March 26, 2002 -- The chancellor of the Bloomington campus of Indiana University ruled Monday that a mural by Thomas Hart Benton will stay in place in a lecture room on campus. University students, led by the Black Student Union, charge that a mural segment depicting a Ku Klux Klan rally is painful to students and demanded that it be removed or covered. Others have said the mural reflects honestly on Indiana's history, including its relationship with the Klan, and should remain on display. For Morning Edition, Will Murphy of member station WFIU reports.

Klan figures appear near the center of this panel from Thomas Hart Benton's mural. Photo courtesy Indiana University  enlarge image

When Benton painted the mural in 1933, it was actually considered rather progressive because it featured (in the same panel as the KKK figures) a white nurse tending a black child. Today, though, the mural's detractors say it symbolizes the "institutionalized racism" at the university. They've demanded that it not remain on display, and have hinted that they're prepared to do "whatever it takes" to make that happen.

Proponents of leaving the mural on display contend that to remove it would represent an act of censorship at an institution of higher learning. They say removing or covering it also would deny the campus community the opportunity to discuss issues of racism openly and honestly, and would bury the state's checkered history on those issues.

Observers acknowledge that Indiana University wants to expand diversity and burnish the school's image for minority students. The question now, they say, is whether administrators' outreach to those students will include suppressing art the students find objectionable.


In Depth

  Browse for other NPR stories about controversies involving the Ku Klux Klan.


Other Resources

• View an Indiana State Library Web page about researching the KKK in Indiana.

• Read an encyclopedia.com biography of Thomas Hart Benton.

• View Thomas Hart Benton works at the National Gallery of Art.

• See more Thomas Hart Benton works at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

• Visit a Web site for the Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio in Kansas City, Mo.

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