Jefferson County Courthouse murals

"Old South" and "New South"

The Jefferson County Courthouse murals, entitled "Old South" and "New South", are a pair of 17'-6" tall by 8'-0" wide Art Deco-style painted murals on either side of the west foyer of the Jefferson County Courthouse, entering from Linn Park. They were painted in 1931 by Chicago-based artist John W. Norton (1876-1934), who was commissioned by the architects, Holabird & Root.

The "Old South" mural, on the South side of the lobby, is dominated by the monumental figure of a woman in a modest antebellum dress framed by fluted columns. Around her feet is a scene of African American slaves harvesting cotton and sugar cane near some humble cabins in the foreground. Behind them are two gentlemen on horseback, a riverboat, a warehouse and a Greek Revival style mansion.

The "New South" mural, on the North wall, features a similar composition, with the dominant figure that of a man in a suit and hat holding open a rolled drawing. There is black miner, a group of white ironworkers, and another white worker loading baled cotton in the foreground. Behind them are seen a locomotive crossing a bridge, a power plant, a blast furnace and a city skyline.

Norton was partly inspired by the work of Mexican artist Diego Rivera to highlight working people in his murals. The composition of the two vertically-oriented murals with a single dominant figure reflected his "Ceres," Greek goddess of agriculture, for the main trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade.

Over the years some have objected to the murals' depiction of African American slave laborers and miners at the feet of the heroically-scaled central white figures. The murals have been perceived as racist, and as emblems of "Jim Crow" society's expectations. Jefferson County Commission members Shelia Smoot and Jeff Germany have, at different times, proposed covering them up.

In their 2008 survey of Civil Rights Memorials across the South, geographers Owen Dwyer and Derek Alderman noted that "In the wake of the Civil Rights Movement and the arrival of black elected officials, calls to remove these murals of the Old and New Souths have been made. Outright removal, however, would destroy a 'material witness' to white supremacy's pervasiveness, depriving future generations of a part of their collective past." They suggested that a preferable means of addressing the "repugnant element" would be to commission a "counter-mural or plaque" similar to the plaque added to New Orleans' 1891 "Liberty Monument" in 1974, disavowing its overt racism.

In July 2015 a petition was created by Birmingham native and University of Arizona assistant professor Anne Garland Mahler calling for the murals to be removed from the Courthouse, "to a place that encourages critical engagement," like the Birmingham Museum of Art or Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Hezekiah Jackson of the Birmingham Metro NAACP and William Barnes of the Birmingham Urban League supported the petition, which had 121 signatures as of September 22.

Jefferson County Commissioners Sandra Brown and Joe Knight expressed support for the idea of removing the murals. Commissioner Jimmie Stephens has estimated that the cost to remove the murals could exceed $100,000, which would be difficult for the debt-ridden county to find. Commission President David Carrington suggested that it was also a good time to consider removing the carved designs resembling swastikas from the courthouse entrances and the framed photographs of former commissioners convicted of crimes during the Jefferson County sewer construction scandal.

References

• Dwyer, Owen J. & Derek H. Alderman (2008) Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory. Chicago, Illinois: Center for American Places at Columbia College ISBN 193006683X
• Brook, Ginger (May 2, 2013) "Old and New" Deep Fried Kudzu.
• "Murals, Murals On The Wall: Our Story Through Art in Public Places, 1929-1939" (November 2010) Birmingham Historical Society Newsletter
• Collins, Alan (July 2, 2015) "Woman starts online petition to take down 'racist' JeffCo courthouse mural." WBRC.com
• Rockett, Julie (September 22, 2015) "NAACP to address Jefferson Co. Courthouse mural." WBRC.com

External links

• "Jefferson County Courthouse" photographs in the Ryerson & Burnham Archives Archival Image Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago
• "Take Down Jim Crow Murals from Jefferson County Courthouse" petition at change.org - accessed September 22, 2015