An online petition wanting part of a 1930s mural depicting a Ku Klux Klan rally removed from an Indiana University lecture hall echoes previous debates over it.
The scene is within a 22-panel mural about the state’s history in Woodburn Hall on the Bloomington campus. Part of one panel shows white-hooded Klansmen burning a cross, representing the state’s KKK entanglement during the 1920s.
Former IU student Jacquline Barrie tells The Indianapolis Star she started the petition because the scene is a symbol of hate.
University spokesman Ryan Piurek says the depiction is a reminder about an unsavory portion of Indiana’s history.
The petition follows the recent deadly confrontations at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. IU leaders kept the mural in place after similar objections about 15 years ago.
