Diversity mural ordered uncovered before Trump Dubuque rally

• City officials in Dubuque, Iowa, ordered the removal of a tarp covering a racial solidarity mural.
• The tarp was reportedly placed by President Donald Trump's advance team ahead of a rally.
• The city said it did not authorize the covering of the mural on the city-owned building.

Dubuque officials ordered the removal of a tarp that, according to news reports, President Donald Trump's advance team placed over a racial solidarity mural on the city-owned Five Flags Civic Center, where he is scheduled to speak.

The tarp gained wide attention on social media Saturday, Oct. 31, the day before Trump's appearance, after it was draped over Dubuque artist Shelby Fry's "Solidarity" mural, which covers one side of the center.

The city said in a statement late Saturday that it was not asked if the exterior of the Five Flags Civic Center "could be modified and did not authorize the tarp."

It said it had ordered the private management company that operates the center, Oak View Group, to remove the tarp, and that the company had done so.

"The facility rental agreement for the Sunday, Nov. 1, event does not include any authority to modify the exterior of the facility," the city said.

Trump is staging a rally Sunday in Dubuque, the second he has held in Iowa in advance of the midterm elections Tuesday. He held a rally in Sioux City on Oct. 22.

Eastern Iowa media, including local Dubuque newspaper the Telegraph Herald, quoted Oak View as saying it had not been involved in the placement of the tarp, which was the work of Trump's advance team. KCRG-TV reported that Scott Hallgren, general manager of the Five Flags Center for Oak View, said the goal of the White House in covering the mural was to provide exterior branding and put up a U.S. flag.

Oak View also manages the Polk County-owned Iowa Events Center and Casey's Center in Des Moines.

The mural, 105 feet long and 28 feet wide, faces Dubuque's Main Street next to the center's entrance. It depicts 10 raised Black, brown and White fists, each bearing a letter on the wrist. Together they spell out the word "SOLIDARITY."

The stylized letters also include symbols such as a Pride rainbow and emblems for disability rights, mental health and gender diversity. Trump frequently has criticized expressions of diversity, equity and inclusion as "woke" and divisive and has ordered the removal of displays addressing diversity and historical racism from federal museums and historic sites.

The mural is bordered on one side by the five flags that have flown over Iowa's oldest city at various times in its history, topped by the current U.S. flag.

Commissioned by the city, Fry, an Iowa State University graduate, created the mural in 2020 with the help of 80 volunteers. In a statement that year, she said it was inspired by the diverse crowds that came together across the nation to protest in the wake of the 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Also speaking in 2020, then-Dubuque Mayor Roy D. Buol said the mural recognizes that "our local legacy of racism conjured painful memory, and we each have a role to play in improving quality of life and equity in our community."

Dubuque was the scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s of cross burnings targeting the appointment of a Black principal at a local elementary school and a city initiative to try to increase the community's diversity.