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University of Kentucky to cover controversial campus mural

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Nine years after his predecessor rejected calls to remove a controversial Great Depression-era campus mural that featured black workers toiling in a tobacco field, University of Kentucky president Eli Capilouto has decided to cover the painting until a more permanent solution is found.

Capilouto wrote on the school's website Monday that he understood students' frustrations.

''Ironically, a wall designed to welcome and educate is for so many the embodiment of a social and cultural wound that remains to this day,'' Capilouto wrote.

The mural was painted directly into the plaster, making its removal difficult. An explanation of the cover will be placed nearby.

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In 2006, senators of the University of Kentucky's student government passed a resolution to remove the mural, but then-president Lee Todd said he thought the artwork was an important historical and artistic artifact.

The fresco depicts scenes from state history and was painted in 1934 by artist Ann Rice O'Hanlon. In addition to featuring the scene in the
tobacco field, it also shows black musicians playing for white dancers, and a Native American with a tomahawk.

Associated Press