Miami Muralist Ordered to Cover Obama

MIAMI—Serge Toussaint, a Miami-based, Haitian muralist, has been forced to paint over a part of one of his murals that depicts Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama, reports the Miami Herald. Toussaint was paid $3,000 by a city organization to paint the concrete poles of an I-95 underpass, using the city's set motif of blues skies and clouds. But he also painted a mural on the highway wall, which depicted Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama. Elaine Black, president of the Liberty City Community Revitalization Trust, said, "We did not pay Serge to do that...He decided to put that one up."

About two weeks after the mural went up, an anonymous caller notified the Florida Department of Transportation, which ordered Toussaint to paint over Obama. He obeyed, but the FDOT has said that the picture of King may need to be removed as well, because it does not fit the original permit description. The artist used white primer to cover Obama, and new callers have accused him of "whitewashing" the presidential candidate.