WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Freedom Riders mural defaced, again
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The Freedom Riders mural after it was defaced in September.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Vandals have again defaced a mural celebrating Nashville's historic Freedom Riders.
Located on Jefferson Street in north Nashville and painted by local high school students, the mural captures the spirit of the Freedom Riders, who rode buses into the Deep South in the 1960s, trying to bring an end to racial segregation.
Completed in June, the mural was desecrated in mid-September when someone spray painted over the faces and hands of African Americans depicted in the mural.
It cost $300 to repair the damage.
Sometime Thursday, vandals struck again, tagging over the map of the Freedom Riders' route.
After the September vandalism, artist Michael Cooper told News 2 never in his 20 years of painting murals has one of his creations been destroyed.
"As far as I'm concerned, it is a slap in the face, to the kids who put so much hard work into this," he told News 2's Andy Cordan. "Oh, it was incredibly sad, just incredibly sad that anything like that can happen today. If this was the 60s, I can see it, but come on it's been 50 years, get over it!"
Cooper also told News 2 he planned to put a clear coating over the mural to protect it from future vandalism.
The protective covering had yet to be installed and the mural will again have to be repaired.
Anyone with information on the vandalism is urged to call Metro police or Crime Stoppers at 74-CRIME.
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