JACKI LYDEN, host: Time now for your letters. Several listeners wrote in regarding my conversation last week with Chris Blanchard about a mural in a courthouse in Boise, Idaho. The mural depicts a white settler about to lynch a Native American and it's among several dozen paintings in the courthouse dating back to 1940 done by artists as part of the Works Progress Administration project. Fred Gillalin(ph) in Amberg(ph), Bavaria in Germany writes, What would happen to this mural if it depicted a black man about to be lynched by the KKK and if it were, say, in a courthouse in Dallas or Atlanta? Would it be seen as something that deserves preservation other than taking it down and putting it in a museum somewhere? He continues, Since American Indians don't riot and are a relatively small group of people spread out across the nation, we continue to treat them as if they are insignificant. This mural should be removed immediately and if it is destroyed in the process, so be it.</s>JACKI LYDEN, host: Other listeners believe the mural should be maintained in some form. Elizabeth Halberstadt of Charleston, South Carolina is one of them. I am a granddaughter of Ernst Halverstadt, who was a WPA muralist and supervisor, she writes. When I heard that some people had considered painting over the Idaho courthouse mural, I let out an audible No. The mural, we must all remember, was painted in an historic context and its message may not be politically correct today. Nonetheless, if we were to paint over this mural simply because the depiction is objectionable to some, we would be guilty of revisionist history. Keep all the courthouse murals preserved in their original format.</s>JACKI LYDEN, host: Write to us. You can go to our website on NPR.org and click on the Contact Us link. Please remember to tell us where you live and how to pronounce your name.
Jacki Lyden reads from listener's letters concerning the debate over a historical mural in Idaho that depicts the lynching of a Native American.