San Francisco's school board voted in June to paint over the controversial mural at George Washington High School that depicts scenes from the life of the first president and includes imagery of slaves working on his plantations.
A school board has ordered an historic 83-year-old mural depicting the life of George Washington and featuring imagery of slaves working on the first president's plantations and soldiers standing over a Native American corpse to be covered up, CNN reports.
The vote was 4-3 among the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education.
The mural at George Washington High School will be concealed by panels to show “the heroism of people of colour in America,” it was announced on 13 August.
“Where we all agree is that the mural depicts the racist history of America, especially in regards to African Americans and Native Americans. It is important that we all share the agreement and acknowledgement of racism, discrimination, and the dehumanising of people of colour and women in American history,” said School Board President Stevon Cook.
The board had previously voted in June to paint over the “Life of Washington”.
“We are not going to paint over public art. We're going to find another way to keep it from public view,” Cook said.
In June George Washington High School's Reflection and Action Working Group – an ad-hoc committee comprising students, school employees, local artists, historians and Native Americans – had claimed that the…
