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Elgin Arts Commission Recommends Removing Mural Of Lynching

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Elgin Cultural Arts Commission has voted to recommend permanently removing a controversial mural from public display.

The mural is a replica of a picture taken in 1930 in which a white crowd watches a lynching of two black men in Indiana.

Most people attending meetings on the mural named "American Nocturne," by local artist David Powers, wanted to see it gone. Some have said it's a slap in the face.

The mural went largely unnoticed for what it was over nearly a decade, until someone's memory was jogged, and a search online confirmed his suspicions that the mural depicted a crowd at a lynching.

Powers has explained the point of the mural was to spotlight evil.

While the arts commission has voted to get rid of it, the Elgin City Council will have the final say.

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