Mural controversy seen as opportunity
The U.S. Postal Service’s decision to cover a 12-panel, 80-year-old mural inside the Rhinebeck Post Office presents an opportunity to discuss the role of art in depicting local history, the executive director of the Dutchess County Historical Society says.
Such a discussion “needs to happen regardless of what happens at the post office or whether the post office would be involved or not,” Bill Jeffway said Monday. “That conversation can happen in a number of different ways, but I don’t think it’s a big disadvantage if someone from the post office is not directly involved in the community conversation.”
The U.S. Postal Service in August put the Rhinebeck mural on a list of post office art to be covered. The mural was created by local artist Olin Dows (1904-1981) as an interpretation of local history from the early 1600s through the 1930s.
The mural includes images of laborers interpreted to be slaves. In one scene, two Black men are seen stooped over and carrying heavy bags to a waiting boat; another shows a Black man working at an outdoor wood stove; and a third shows what appears to be a young Black person kneeling over harvested crops.
Jeffway credited Laura Lennox Kufner, a Rhinebeck resident who earlier this year wrote an opinion article objecting to the mural, for suggesting a community discussion to find ways that murals, even if offensive to some, can serve as teachable.
Kufner could not be reached for comment about her position, but in an email to town of Rhinebeck town officials, she said she has “adjusted” her opinion.
“Instead of covering it up, or removing it, we might reach a compromise and find a way to effectively use the mural as a teachable moment,” she wrote. “I do think the mural contains offensive scenes, but I would like to see it remain as long as there is a way to learn from it [in] a way that no visitor to the post office could ignore.”
Kufner wrote that having a constructive conversation would give people with differing views the opportunity to make suggestions.
“One idea that I really like is to have a marker of sorts near the offensive element that calls it into question, or offers a brief history of the debate at hand,” she wrote. “This may include a history of slavery in the Hudson Valley, or a history of the local Native populations.”
The Rhinebeck Post Office controversy comes just three months after an outdoor mural in the village of Red Hook that some saw as depicting slavery was painted over, and also in the wake of the Rhinebeck Town Board voting to replace a historical marker on U.S. Route 9 that honored slavery advocate John A. Quitman.