[11] The Works Progress Administration commissioned Victor Arnautoff to paint a mural at the newly opened George Washington High School in San Francisco's Richmond District.
[7] Members of the School's Black Student Union initially demanded that the mural be destroyed but after discussions with Arnautoff's son and local artists decided that it was “historically sound and should remain on view”.
[15] In 2018 the Board opposed city's nomination of the George Washington High School as a historical landmark "over concerns that the designation could complicate the potential removal" of the mural.
[16] In June 2019, the San Francisco Board of Education voted unanimously to paint over all thirteen panels,[17] with commissioner Mark Sanchez stating that "this is reparations".
[7] A poll of San Francisco voters, commissioned by the Coalition to Protect Public Art, found that 76% opposed destroying the mural, including 72% of people of color.
[28] Supporters of the coalition included former mayor Art Agnos,[28] former Supervisor Matt Gonzalez,[29] and vice president of the George Washington High School Alumni Association Lope Yap Jr.[28] California senator, Dianne Feinstein,[30] declared her opposition to removing the mural as well.
Gray Brechin, the founder of "Living New Deal" project and UC Berkeley professor, called on people “to recall the school board.”[31] Condemnation of board's decision reached national proportions with a column by Bari Weiss[18] in The New York Times.
[32] Signatories included noted academics Aijaz Ahmad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, Hal Foster, Michael Fried, Fredric Jameson, David Harvey, and Adolph Reed.
[35] Board members who voted in the minority, insisting that the art work be destroyed, were Alison Collins, Gabriella Lopez, and Mark Sanchez.
On July 27, 2021, superior court judge Anne-Christine Massullo ruled in favor of the alumni association, preventing the board from covering the mural.
In 2019, General Services Administration indicated that it was conducting research to determine whether the mural was property of the federal government, and asked the district to keep it updated.
[49][12] For instance, in the City Life mural painted in Coit Tower, Aranutoff included a self portrait next to a magazine stand filled with leftist publications.
In the words of Arnautoff's biographer, "the mural makes clear that slave labor provide[d] the plantation's economic basis", at a time when high school history classes "ignored... that the nation's founders... owned other human beings as chattel".
7 The Native American in the "Westward Vision" panel is rendered in full color, facing away from the viewer, while the pioneers walking behind it are depicted in "ghostly hues of grey and white".
[25] According to Apollo art magazine, "the direct connection between the policies of the founding fathers and Indian genocide is made obvious by Arnautoff's placement of George Washington in the panel.