Dubuque Orders Tarp Over Solidarity Mural Removed Ahead of Trump Rally, Saying It Was Never Authorized
Officials in Dubuque, Iowa, have ordered the removal of a tarp that, according to news reports, President Donald Trump's advance team placed over a racial solidarity mural on the city-owned Five Flags Civic Center, where Trump is scheduled to speak on November 1, the Des Moines Register reported.
The tarp drew wide attention on social media on Saturday, October 31, the day before Trump's appearance, after it was draped over Dubuque artist Shelby Fry's "Solidarity" mural, which covers one side of the center. The city said in a statement late Saturday that it was not asked whether the exterior of the Five Flags Civic Center could be modified and did not authorize the tarp. It said it had ordered Oak View Group, the private management company that operates the center, to remove the tarp, and that the company had done so. "The facility rental agreement for the Sunday, November 1, event does not include any authority to modify the exterior of the facility," the city said.
Eastern Iowa media, including the Dubuque newspaper the Telegraph Herald, quoted Oak View Group as saying it had not been involved in placing the tarp, which was the work of Trump's advance team. KCRG-TV reported that Scott Hallgren, general manager of the Five Flags Center for Oak View Group, said the White House's goal in covering the mural was to provide exterior branding and put up a U.S. flag.
The mural, 105 feet long and 28 feet wide, faces Dubuque's Main Street next to the center's entrance. It depicts 10 raised Black, brown and White fists, each bearing a letter on the wrist; together they spell out the word "SOLIDARITY." The stylized letters also include symbols such as a Pride rainbow and emblems for disability rights, mental health and gender diversity.
The mural was commissioned by the city. Fry, an Iowa State University graduate, created it in 2020 with the help of 80 volunteers. In a statement that year, she said it was inspired by the diverse crowds that came together across the nation to protest in the wake of the 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police. Then-Mayor Roy D. Buol said at the time that the mural recognizes that the community's local legacy of racism conjured painful memory, and that everyone has a role to play in improving quality of life and equity in the community.
Trump is staging a rally in Dubuque on Sunday, November 1, the second he has held in Iowa ahead of the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3. He held a rally in Sioux City on October 22.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：事发场馆 Five Flags Center（Five Flags Theater）外观资料照片，壁画位于该中心另一侧外墙。Djh57 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / File photo: the Five Flags Center (Five Flags Theater) in Dubuque; the mural is on another exterior wall of the center. Photo by Djh57, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
