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"Erasing History" SF Washington High & The Victor Arnautoff Murals

by WorkWeek
WorkWeek interviews historian, author and UC geographer Gray Brechin about the effort to destroy the George Washington High Victor Arnautoff murals. The murals show part of the real history of the United States.
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Historian and geographer Gray Brechin talks about the effort to destroy the historic Victor Arnautoff murals at Washington High in San Francisco.

He discusses the history of the murals including their exposure of the history of George Washington. He also discusses other efforts to remove murals at Coit Tower and at Rincon annex because of their political content. This led to protests in the 30's and 50's by working people to protect the murals at Coit Tower and Rincon Annex.

This interview was done by Steve Zeltzer of WorkWeek on 5/28/19.

For additional media:

New Deal Murals Spur Controversy
https://livingnewdeal.org/new-deal-murals-spur-controversy/#comments

Victor Arnautoff: San Francisco's Master Muralist of the 1930's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5aYXYqcDNg&t=7s

These High School Murals Depict an Ugly History. Should They Go?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/arts/design/george-washington-murals-ugly-history-debated.html

Murals at Washington High School Stoke Debate: Board to Decide Their Fate
https://sfrichmondreview.com/2019/04/30/murals-at-washington-high-school-stoke-debate-board-to-decide-their-fate/

Murals at Washington High School Stoke Debate: Board to Decide Their Fate
https://sfrichmondreview.com/2019/04/30/murals-at-washington-high-school-stoke-debate-board-to-decide-their-fate/

WorkWeek Radio
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
§Washington And US Expansion
by WorkWeek
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One of the Victor Arnautoff murals shows Washington supporting the expansion west and which ended in the expropriation of native people in the United States
§Artist Victor Arnautoff Self Portrait
by WorkWeek
arnautoff_victor_self_portrait.jpg
Victor Arnaugtoff who is San Francisco's most famous muralist worked with Diego Rivera. He was was harassed and. targeted by the FBI during the witch hunts in the 1950s.
refregier_waterfrontrinconannex-straightened.jpg
Anton Refregier painted as well about the history of San Francisco and California and there were efforts to remove the murals at Rincon Annex by Richard Nixon for being un-American.
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Some African American and Native American students say they are traumatized by the Arnautoff murals and the majority of the San Francisco Unified School Board support the destruction of the murals. There is no funding to remove them so they would have to be destroyed.
§Dewey Crumpler Mural At Georege Washington High
by WorkWeek
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In the 1970's artist Dewey Crumpler was commissioned to do new murals at George Washington High.
arnautoff-at-work-at-george-washington-high-1936-247x300.jpg
Victor Arnautoff at work on his murals at George Washington High.
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Abolish J.R.O.T.C.
Thank you WorkWeek for your additional commentary on this vicious anti-culture attack on the urgently needed realistic portrayals of American history by the outstanding muralist, Victor Arnautoff. The same San Francisco School Board, all Democrats, who are considering destroying these beautiful murals also promotes the destroyers of culture, the US military, with Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at the San Francisco public high schools of Balboa. Burton, Galileo, Lincoln, Lowell, Mission and Washington High Schools where they learn to kill human beings around the world for the profits of the munitions makers and oil profiteers, the only reason the military exists.
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/05/13/18823401.php

The largest most recent destruction of culture, reminiscent of Nazi Germany, was the illegal American invasion and occupation of Iraq where they parked their tanks inside the Iraqi National Museum and allowed massive looting and art destruction to take place. See

"The Iraqi National Museum of Modern Art: Journey of Destruction" By Ali L. Al-Dulaimi, 5/22/19 at
https://www.globalresearch.ca/journey-destruction-iraqi-national-museum-modern-art/5678222

Every American should be traumatized by the truth of American history, which includes the fact that this country was built on the genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and the vicious exploitation of the labor of all nationalities, including children, to this day. This trauma should move them to demand the Democratic Party's school board abolish JROTC to stop the killing and exploitation of the people of the world and the destruction of art.
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