Sharpton views Benton mural

The Reverend Al Sharpton told a waiting crowd in Woodburn Hall Thursday evening that the section of the Benton mural in room 100 featuring Ku Klux Klan members was offensive to the black community at IU and should be taken down. The painting should be in museum, not in the classroom where it can be "nakedly offensive," he said as the crowd cheered and clapped at his decision.\n"It's in a place where it is something that can be nakedly offensive to a lot of us that were, in fact, raped," Sharpton, who is a prominent civil rights activist. "That was not art. That was fact."\nHe paid a visit to the mural after junior Derren Chapman stepped up amid hundreds of audience members during a question and answer session at Sharpton's speech in the IU Auditorium earlier in the evening. Chapman asked for Sharpton's help in getting the mural removed. \n"If we all came together on this campus, we could have done something about the mural," Chapman said. "That's why I asked Rev. Sharpton, because people won't come together if they won't talk about it and I still feel like it's an issue."\nSharpton said he would do everything he could to get the mural taken down, adding he would wait for Chapman to contact him.\nThe Indiana Memorial Union Board brought Sharpton, a candidate for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, to IU to deliver a speech as a part of his tour "Al on America."\nHe told an applauding crowd in the Auditorium that young people must become politically and socially active.\n"Every generation of students has made a social or political statement in their world," Sharpton said. "This must not be the first generation of students that make no statement."\nHe said the civil rights leaders of the 1950s and 1960s spread their message with little of the technology young people have today.\n"Here you have cell phones, e-mails, Blackberrys, online, offline but you're talking about nothing," Sharpton said. "How can you have 100 forms of communication and no message?"\nBeyond his charge to young people, Sharpton also addressed the 2000 election. He called the election of President George W. Bush a "political shell game." Bush won because his chief election coordinator, Karl Rove, made the election about gay marriage and abortion rights, neither of which are presidential issues, he said.\nSharpton said that debate let Bush off the hook for the war in Iraq. \nThough much of audience applauded loudly in agreement with points, not everyone in attendance agreed with his position.\nIU College Republicans Internal Vice Chair and sophomore Matt Lettelleir asked Sharpton about his involvement in the 1991 Crown Heights riots and the 1995 fire at Freddy's Fashion Mart, which killed seven people. Sharpton has been accused of inciting violence in both instances. Sharpton refuted both charges.\nNevertheless, even many of the College Republicans appreciated Sharpton's call to action for the younger generation.\n"I believe it's important if you have view you feel passionate about, you should try to make a difference," said IU College Republicans Political Director and senior David White. "As far as the difference that Al Sharpton wants you to make, I have to wholeheartedly disagree."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.