Jefferson County Courthouse murals

The Jefferson County Courthouse murals, entitled "Old South" and "New South", are large 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, and a blast furnace.

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.

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 September 2015 the Jefferson County Commission responded to a petition to remove the murals due to their "racist" content. Commissioner Sandra Brown discussed the matter with the NAACP and Commissioner Joe Knight agreed that the county should "move on."

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.

External links

• "Jefferson County Courthouse" photographs in the Ryerson & Burnham Archives Archival Image Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago