Hidden Mural Uncovered At Old Federal Courthouse
James O. Eastland Courthouse Up For Auction
A mural at the old federal courthouse in Jackson has been covered up for decades. But now that the building is on the auction block, the mural has become the center of a controversy.
Historians said the James O. Eastland Courthouse was built between 1933 and 1934 in downtown Jackson. The mural inside the building shows African-Americans picking cotton and playing the banjo alongside a white family.
The mural was painted in 1938 by Simka Simkovitch and was titled "Pursuit of Life in Mississippi," federal officials said. Simkovitch described the mural as a representation of the typical people and life in Mississippi during his time; however, the representation of the people painted on the mural brought back unpleasant memories of life in the Deep South during the times of slavery, said Gregory Andrews, of the General Services Administration.
The mural, which is in the main courtroom on the fourth floor, had been hidden behind a curtain since the 1960s when the first African-American judge appointed to the federal court in Mississippi ordered it to be covered, historians said.
The curtain was removed recently when the building and its contents went up for auction. The 115,000-square-foot space has sat vacant since Aug. 1, following the June opening of the new federal courthouse.
Jim Woodrick, the director of historic preservation for the state, said the mural will not be painted over.
"That is not an option because it's part of the historic fabric of the building. I don't think that would be an option that would be considered," Woodrick said. "I think in the 1960s it was covered with a curtain because it was in a court room, and obviously something like that could be done again. But to permanently cover over it would be to cover over history from that time period."
Woodrick said there are four possible outcomes for the mural: The federal government could take it for another federal building; the new owner could keep it; it could be donated to a nonprofit agency or sold. If sold, the proceeds would have to be given to the federal government.