15 Hidden Peace Monuments

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O B E L I S K

P L A Q U E S

February 21, 1885 - Washington Monument, The Mall, Washington, DC (USA). Construction began in 1845. 555 feet tall. World's tallest obelisk. World's tallest masonry structure. Exterior is plain, but interior stairway (no longer accessible to public) contains 193 plaques from every state & from many foreign countries. (One plaque is said to have been donated by the pope but was ripped out & trashed by US soldiers.).

M U R A L

1938 - "Justice as Protector & Avenger," Charles E. Simons Jr. Federal Courthouse, Aiken, South Carolina (USA). By German-born Stefan Hirsch [1899-1964]. "Proved highly controversial because the central female figure representing justice was painted in slightly dark skin tones, & the judge was outraged at the 'mulatto' in the painting. It was covered with a drape for many years."

M U R A L

Circa 1940 - Lynching Mural, Ada County Courthouse, Boise, Idaho (USA). "December 13, 2008: This mural depicting the lynching of an Indian is among the 1940-circa murals on display in the old Ada County Courthouse in Boise. Interpretive plaques – with text agreed on by the state & Idaho's five Indian tribes – will be hung before this year's legislative session. /// A district judge in the courthouse – Judge Gerald Schroeder, who later served as chief justice of Idaho’s Supreme Court – was so offended by the lynching murals that he ordered them covered over with large Idaho and US flags, which hid the murals for years. Then, after Ada County built a new courthouse, the art deco building became the temporary home of the state Legislature, which is meeting there while the state Capitol across the street is being renovated. Lawmakers debated whether to hide, remove, or keep the controversial lynching murals, which don’t depict a specific historical event. 'It was really the Legislature bringing the tribes in to look at them that convinced everyone there was an educational opportunity,' Petersen said."

Date? - Censored monument, Grahamstown: Anglican Cathedral of Saint Michael & Saint George, Grahamstown (South Africa). "This is just one of a number of monuments in this church where portions of the text have been covered up because they are considered no longer to be in accordance with the canons of political correctness in the new South Africa, thus providing scope for the individual imagination. Perhaps the deceased was said to have been slain by 'savage kaffirs,' perhaps 'hacked to pieces by a howling horde of savages.' We shall never know, until one day the inscriptions are no longer deemed to offend hypersensitive visitors & we can all be allowed to make up our own minds about them."

M U R A L

1941 or 1942 - Mural, US Department of State, 21st Street Entrance, Washington, DC (USA). "Employees & guests are greeted by the 50- foot-by-12-foot historic mural “America the Mighty,” painted by Kindred McLeary [1901-1949] in 1942." /// "There is an awesome mural just inside the entrance by one Kindred McLeary called 'Defense of the Four Freedoms' (1941). Apparently it was covered for years by State officials who considered it too 'warlike.'" /// Left image is mural study at American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution (not currently on public view).

M U R A L

1955 - “The Singing Mural,” Ballroom, University Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee (USA). By muralist Marion Greenwood [1909-1970]. Depicting the music, dance, and folklore of Tennessee from the Mississippi on the left to the Appalachians on the right. Minority students complained that the Black cotton picker is a slave. Mural vandalized on May 18, 1970. Has been covered since May 1972. Uncovered briefly March 15-17, 2006, when these photos were taken by the Knoxville News Sentinel. [UPDATE NEEDED! Mural was loaned to Knoxville Museum of Art & is now on public display.]

December 1960-November 1975 - "Raíces de la Paz" / "The Roots of Peace," Organization of American States (OAS), 17th Street & Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC (USA). Entirely underground, rarely advertised, public access granted on request. "In the tunnel connecting the OAS Building with its Administration Building two blocks away is a 162-meter [sic] / 200-foot mural depicting various themes of peace & development in the Americas. World's widest mural? Painted by Uruguayan artist Carlos Paez Vilaró [b.1923] who also painted a mural for the UN building in New York City." Restored in 2002 by Roberto Arce. Both photos by EWL.

S H R I N E

1962 - USS Arizona Memorial Musuem, National Park Service (NPS), 1 Arizona Memorial Place, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Oahu Island, Hawaii (USA). "The underwater [battleship] USS Arizona serves as the final resting place for many of the battleship's 1,177 crew members who lost their lives on December 7, 1941." One of 27 US museums in "Museums for Peace Worldwide" edited by Kazuyo Yamane (2008).

M A H N M A L October 10, 1986-November 10, 1993 - "Mahnmal gegen Faschismus, Krieg, Gewalt - Fur Frieden und Menschenrechte / Memorial Against Fascism, War and Violence - For Peace and Human Rights," Rathaus Train Station, Harburger Ring, Hamburg (Germany). By Esther Shalev-Gerz & Jochen Gerz. "Started out as a pillar [12 meter stele] in 1986 and was gradually lowered into the ground over eight [or ten?] steps until 1993. Since then it has just been a plaque in the ground." Text on plaque quoted differently by different sources: "Denn nichts kann auf Dauer an unserer Stelle sich gegen das Unrecht erheben / Because nothing can permanently at our place to rise against injustice." "We invite the citizens of Harburg and visitors to the town to add their names here to ours. In doing so we commit ourselves to remain vigilant. As more and more names cover the 12-meter-tall lead column, it will gradually be lowered into the ground. One day it will have disappeared completely and the site of the Harburg monument against fascism will be empty. In the end it is only we ourselves who can rise up against injustice."

1990 - "Passage Inachevé / Incomplete Passage," Buffalo Bayou, Houston, Texas (USA). "This skeletal house commemorates the Bicentennial [of the French Revolution]. The images embedded in the gables abstractly reflect issues of human rights, freedom of expressions [sic], contemplative ideas, elements of history & contemporary concerns." /// This is "Monday's Monument" #20.

M A H N M A L 1993 - Mahnmal gegen Rassismus / Monument against Racism, Schlossplatz, Saarbrüken, Saarland (Germany). Also called "Invisible Warning Monument." "Designed by Jochen Gerz in collaboration with students of the College of Fine Arts. On the [invisible] back of 2,146 paving stones the names of Jewish cemeteries are engraved, which existed before the Second World War in Germany." Outside the castle which used to contain a Gestapo prison. [Ian Buruma (1994), "The Wages of Guilt," p. 205.]

D E N K M A L March 20, 1995 - Denkmal zur Erinnerung an die Bücherverbrennung / Book Burning Monument, Bebelplatz, near Unter den Linden, Berlin (Germany). At site of Nazi book burning in 1933 near St. Hedwig's Cathedral. The underground memorial consists of a window on the surface of the plaza, under which vacant bookshelves are lit and visible. A bronze plaque quotes German poet Heinrich Heine [1797-1856]: “Where books are burned in the end people will burn.”

T A P I S T R Y

February 5, 2003 - "Guernica," UN Headquarters, New York City, New York (USA). "A large blue curtain was placed to cover this work, so that it would not be visible in the background when Colin Powell & John Negroponte gave press conferences at the United Nations. On the following day, it was claimed that the curtain was placed there at the request of television news crews, who had complained that the wild lines & screaming figures made for a bad backdrop, & that a horse's hindquarters appeared just above the faces of any speakers. Some diplomats, however, in talks with journalists claimed that the Bush administration pressured UN officials to cover the tapestry, rather than have it in the background while Powell or other US diplomats argued for war on Iraq. According to The Washington Times in 2003, the sequence was as follows: * 2003, Monday 27 January: Guernica found covered by journalists with a baby-blue banner & an UN-logo. "It's only temporary. We're only doing this until the cameras leave," said UN-spokesperson Abdellatif Kabbaj. He clarified: "We had a problem with, you know, the horse" (that is, in the background of a camera-shoot). * The drapes were installed Monday, 27 January & Wednesday, 29 January only. Other days of the week, including Tuesday in between, there was no drape. On these other days the UN-Security Council's agenda included Afghanistan, Western Sahara & Lebanon."

April 20, 2006 - Free Speech Monument, City Hall, Charlottesville, Virginia (USA). "Back when the city established the free speech monument, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression - which commissioned & funded the slate wall in front of city hall - made quite clear to the city that they must never, ever erase anything from it, because doing so would be an unconstitutional violation of individual’s right to free expression. Unfortunately, new city manager Maurice Jones apparently quite literally didn’t get the memo, because he recently ordered city staff to erase a drawing from the wall.."

July 9, 2016 - Phoenix of Hiroshima, North Mokelumne River, near Isleton, Sacramento County, California (USA). Sailboat sunk in 2010. Found on July 9, 2016, by boat from Sacramento County Sherriff's Department (upper right image) using sonar (upper left image). The boat was constructed near Hiroshima (Japan) by American Quaker Earle Reynonds [1910-1998] in 1954. He & his family used it to sail around the world, then they deliberately sailed into the American nuclear testing zone in the Pacific Ocean in 1958 to protest nuclear weapons. The Reynolds family now hopes to raise the historic 62-year old boat, then transport it to a boatyard in Port Townsend, Washington, for restoration (like the Golden Rule). Information & first 3 images courtesy of Earle's daughter Jessica Reynolds Renshaw (lower left image). Lower right image is screen shot from Google Earth (Street View as of June 2007) at or very near the location of the sinking in 2000.