“Not Acceptable to the People”

Focusing on a single New Deal initiative, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Section of Fine Arts (1934–43), this essay considers controversies and negotiations over racial content in public murals, with particular attention to post office decor for Salina, Kansas, and St. Joseph, Missouri. Section artists had to attend to waves of input from administrators, juries, civic leaders, postmasters, journalists, politicians, and the general public. Among their criticisms, both Black and White complainants explicitly identified and decried racial slurs in Section productions, whether persistent anti-Black stereotypes or calumnies about White locals’ eugenic inferiority. When local citizens protested, the Treasury heeded Black audiences far less often than their White counterparts. Even more, White elites participated much more frequently as selection jurors, had greater opportunities to interact with and counsel artists, and found their politicians far more willing to advocate on their behalf.