A painting that has caused tempers to flare in East Texas apparently will be hanging around for years to come. The mural, entitled "The Last Crop," hangs above the doorway inside the lobby of the Linden post office. It depicts barefoot African Americans picking cotton in a field. Protestors took to the streets this past summer, calling for the postal service to remove the painting because they found it to be racist.
"Some people were pretty much not happy with the way the interpretation of the mural was being taken," said Quince Easter, one of the organizers of the demonstration.
On Monday, Easter said his attitude about the artwork has changed, thanks to a new display accompanying the mural. The postal service has put up an on-site exhibit and issued brochures explaining the history of the artwork.
The pamphlets show it was part of a campaign by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1930s to pay tribute to farm workers. Roosevelt reportedly commissioned artists to paint several murals like that one in federal buildings across the country.
"Hard labor, honest labor, integrity, and that's what the artist was trying to convey," said Derek Satchell of the Texas Historic Commission, the agency that conducted the research. Satchell said over the years, both the meaning of the mural and its original title got lost in the shuffle.
The postal service has now replaced the painting's nickname--cotton pickers--with its original title.
"I think it gives a better explanation, a more positive connotation to what it's about," said postal spokesman McKinney Boyd. However, it seems not everyone agrees.
Rev. Lee Grundy, one of the original protestors, said he feels the postal service's latest actions are a slap in the face.
"They didn't do anything to help the community," said Boyd. "I feel like they spent all this time and money and basically all they had to do was take the picture down."
