dieser beitrag wurde verfasst in: englisch (eng/en)
künstler: Pablo Esteban O'Higgins
titel: The Struggle against Racial Discrimination
jahr: 1945
+: 58 ft.
The fresco moved from its original home in 1955, a decade after its creation. The artist, the union, and the mural were by then less celebrated, though not forgotten. Pablo O’Higgins and Local 541 remained active, though their projects and reputations reflected changed times. The once-thriving labor-oriented and internationally oriented Left was battered by “un-American activities” persecutions in the late 1940s and 1950s, including in Seattle. Some organizations disbanded and some individuals redirected their ideas and efforts, but vestiges endured. Paralleling these political developments, for two decades the Ship Scalers fresco was literally in pieces — sawed into sections and stored out of the public eye. However, those pieces would be reunited and reworked with some new flourishes. Central to the mural’s rebirth were O’Higgins and Seattle resident John Caughlan, a defender of labor and civil rights. A longtime attorney for maritime unions, Caughlan had seen the mural’s creation in the Ship Scalers Hall. In 1974, he informed a key local activist, Roberto Maestas, that the UW had taken possession of the work and still had it. Caughlan’s conversation with Maestas set in motion the mobilization for its recovery. (from: Peterson, Recobrando)