ALBANY – New York’s top educational officials have covered over a once-celebrated historical mural because of objections from black staffers, The Post has learned.
The massive, 35-by-22-foot allegorical mural – entitled “The Genius of America” – was painted in 1876 for the nation’s centennial by French artist Adolph Yvon, reportedly for the then-enormous sum of $100,000.
The mural – which now hangs above the front stage of Chancellors Hall at state Education Department’s headquarters here – depicts inspirational scenes from American history and features reverential images of a God-like George Washington, the American flag, and several beautiful women, cast as symbols of liberty and the nation’s future.
But the lower right section of the mural – painted just 11 years after the Civil War freed nearly 4 million Southern slaves – portrays a scantily clad African-American family, seemingly under the protection and care of a well-dressed white man.
While Education Department officials concede the black family is handsomely depicted without any racially offensive caricature, the mural is being covered up because of objections from African-American staffers.
“We heard from several staff who said they’re being asked to sit there and face the mural, which some of them felt didn’t accurately depict what they see in themselves as people,” said Richard Cate, executive deputy education commissioner.
“It gives the impression that the white man is raising up the African-Americans, that the African-Americans are clothed as almost one would expect to find them in the jungles in Africa as opposed to being on the par with the white man,” noted Cate, who said staff meetings attended by 500 people are held periodically in the hall.
Cate said after about 20 of the 50 black employees who attend the meetings complained, he ordered the painting covered by the drapes that flank it.
He said Education Commissioner Richard Mills, New York’s top education official, approved of his decision.
As a result, the mural is now covered at all times and is only shown to the public, or other interested individuals, by special request – which Cate conceded could only come from someone aware of the mural’s existence.
Cate insisted the mural cover-up was not a case of the Education Department succumbing to the pressure of political correctness.
“No one ever said they were trying to dispute the fact that in that era when the mural was painted that that was probably the way a lot of people felt,” Cate said of the mural’s depictions.
Asked why the entire mural is now behind drapes rather than just the controversial section, Cates said, “We just covered it and figured the drapes were either all the way open or all the way closed.”
An insider told The Post that many department officials view the decision to cover the mural as “politically correct censorship.”
“This mural was clearly designed to celebrate America, it’s a beautiful mural, and by covering it over we’re insulting America,” the insider contended.
Ironically, even as the Education Department is covering over the mural, it is distributing a headquarters guidebook that celebrates the artwork.
The booklet states that the “vast painting … long graced the ballroom of the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs” and represents “a panorama of symbolic figures and objects meant to encompass the history and the ideals of the Republic.”
Albany Assemblyman and local historian John McEneny called the cover-up “absurd” and said, “I think we have to be very careful not to try to rewrite history and, in the process, deprive people of real quality art.”