Cafeteria Mural Depicts an Outdated Grady

Tiffany Lindsey

Staff Writer

If you've never spent much time in the Grady High School cafeteria then you've never noticed its beauty. Next time you go there for breakfast, lunch, detention, or even if you just happen to be passing through--be sure to notice the mural on the far right wall.

It represents the Virginia Highlands area from 1949-1952 and uses Grady as the heart of it. It was painted by a former Grady art teacher and his students and was applied on canvas rather than the wall.

But Virginia Highlands in 1949 was a very different place than it is today. And so is Grady High School.

The mural portrays people reading books, playing instruments, and talking to friends. All of them are white.

"You ... have to understand that at the time Grady was an all-white school. The only school blacks were allowed to attend was Washington High," Mrs. Marian Langham, art teacher, said.

However, in 1993, Grady is a majority-black school. And most of Grady's cafeteria patrons are people of color. "I think there should be another Mural done, and we have the best art teacher to handle it," Mr. Robert Robbins, Grady's assistant principal, said.

"Its got a whole bunch of white people on it. I think it should be changed," Shekeila Cokley, sophomore, said.

"I never really noticed it that much, but it would be good if they could paint an other one. It has nothing to do with the fact that there are no blacks, it's not a racial thing. I just think it doesn't give an accurate picture of the students," Eddie Harkness, senior, said.

"It's outdated; everyone is white. The men are the only ones having any fun, while the women are all sewing or doing other feminine things. I like the painting, but they should at least do another one to show how our school has changed," Clarence DeMars, senior, said.

"I think it should stay the same. I mean, who cares? No one really pays attention to it anyway," Eulalia Watson, freshman, said.