A mural that has graced the walls of the post offices in Jackson for 80 years is now covered in black plastic and may be coming down after alleged complaints were made about its subject matter.
The mural, entitled “Cotton: From Field to Mill,” was painted in 1938 by renowned American artist Phillip Evergood as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Projects Administration (WPA), a federally sponsored program that put millions of Americans left jobless by the Great Depression back to work to help revive the economy.
The WPA is best known for Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which built thousands of roads, schools, theaters, libraries, hospitals, post offices, courthouses, airports, parks, forests, and gardens. In Butts County, trees were planted and parks developed, streets and roads were improved, sidewalks laid, a new school building was built, a new post office, and even a new jail.