Art Students Paint Message of Solidarity over Racist Graffiti

Art students from Rock Hill, South Carolina, have made their views on racism clear. After an 8-foot spirit rock outside  their school was defaced with a violently racist graffiti, they picked up their brushes and covered it up with a message of equality, CNN reports.

“I wanted the students to stop texting and tweeting and bogging that image,” said visual arts teacher Ashley Beard. “We wanted to replace it with something positive.” Students painted a picture of planet earth on a rainbow background, emblazoned the words “we are all =”.

Just days earlier, a judge overturned the convictions of the ‘Friendship Nine,’ a group of civil rights protesters who took part in a 1961 sit-in at a segregated lunch counter.

“Justice served is the greatest interest of man on earth,” said Judge John C. Hayes III. “We cannot rewrite history, but we can right history.”

Meanwhile a statement on the Facebook page of the Rock Hill School District read: “While the district is disappointed in the actions of those who painted the rock, we will not let them take from us our joy or success in the progress our community has made, and will continue to make, in racial relations.”

However the criminals could not be apprehended. Capt. Mark Bollinger of Rock Hill Police told CNN that those responsible for the graffiti could not be identified because security video footage was too dark.


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