Artist loses bid to remove panels covering anti-slavery murals at Vermont school

By KATHY McCORMACK
Associated Press

An artist has lost his appeal to remove fabric panels covering his murals at a Vermont law school that were intended to honor African Americans and abolitionists involved in the Underground Railroad.  Artist Sam Kerson created the murals entitled “Vermont, The Underground Railroad” and “Vermont and the Fugitive Slave” in 1993 on walls inside a Vermont Law and Graduate School building. In 2020, school officials said they were racially insensitive and planned to paint over them. But when Kerson objected, it said it would cover them with acoustic tiles. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that denied Kerson’s appeal.