A controversial mural at a San Francisco high school will remain visible and unaltered – for now.
A Superior Court judge ruled Monday to overturn the San Francisco Unified School District’s decision to remove a sprawling mural inside George Washington High School that depicts the first president’s life.
It’s the frescoes of slaves and a dead Native American that stirred up controversy a couple of years ago.
The 1936 mural by Victor Arnautoff, "Life of Washington," is indicative of Depression-era art.
"Good art can actually make you uncomfortable, that’s why we value it, because we learn from it," said Gray Brechin, geographer and Project Scholar of the Living New Deal, who was pleased by the ruling.
The main argument is that those images depict history, and destroying them amounts to censorship.
The school board voted to paint over the mural, but the judge ruled that would be in violation of the law.
District officials are reviewing the decision.
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