An Inclusive Litany

8/9/93

A painting of the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington dressed in women's underwear was forcibly removed from its exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago by several city aldermen. Acting in their defense, Lewis Myers Jr., now deputy director of the NAACP, argued that removing the painting did not violate the artist's First Amendment rights but rather benefitted him by publicizing his work and allowing him to reach "not hundreds, but millions of people."