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STORY: ACLU attorney Randal Kalinen held a press conference yesterday to announce that two African American lawyers had discovered racist artwork in the jury deliberations room of the 151st District Court. Lawyers Ronald G. Ray and Warren Fitzgerald classify the two prints as Jim Crow art. They took their complaint to ACLU's Kalinen earlier this week. Kalinen explained at the press conference what characteristics the two lawyers found offensive: "This is called 'Mississippi Afternoon.' And it also depicts the slaves working on a plantation and that's the Mississippi River in the background. And it they're basically shown in this type of Jim Crow art." [Kalinen also said: "On Tuesday afternoon, two African-American lawyers approached me - Ronald Ray and another lawyer - who had said they'd been in a mediation in the jury room and they had noticed some paintings on the wall which depicted black people outrageously as having ink-black skin; large, thick-red lips and bulging eyeballs. And also they, they were slaves and they appeared to be happy being slaves."] According to academic analysis, blacks were portrayed in artwork for hundreds of years as sub-human in order to justify slavery. This image was reinforced during the 19th century by the minstrel figure, which featured black-faced actors and emphasized slow-witted silliness. Aunt-Jemima and similar stereotypes became especially prevalent and entrenched. The prints were removed before the press conference, so it was impossible to know the names of the artists or when they were done. They were entitled, "Mississippi Afternoon" and "Working on the Levy." Court employees refused to comment on the issue. Possibly out of respect for the court's African-American Bailiff who put the prints up, to - in his words - "beautify the court." Deputy Harry Wright Jr. actually got the prints from another court, where they'd hung for five years without comment. The judge in that court is African-American. Judge Caroline Baker of the 151st Court is white. Deputy Wright sent out a press release saying, "In my 53 years, I've seen discrimination and racism, and this simply isn't it. I'm appalled at the personal attack I have suffered." When the offended lawyer, Fitzgerald, was asked whether it made any difference that a black man hung the prints, he said, "No. The art is what it is." Alison Belima Green is the contemporary art curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. She says the disparity between appreciation and outrage over such work spurs much debate in the art world today: "The whole issue of racial bias expressed in art has been a really hot topic for more than 10 years, actually. A number of contemporary artists for example like Carol Walker, or Michael Ray Charles, or the artist who is now being celebrated by the Venice Biennale - Fred Wilson - delves very deliberately into the stereotypes of what you're calling 'Jim Crow Art' or what other people call 'Negroabilia.' Because that kind of stereotyping is so shocking that it makes people think twice. So this has been a topic that a lot of people in the art world have debated enormously, you know, whether or not these types of images can be read as a critique, a celebration or a shameful license to bias." African-American art dealer, John Linton, has been selling artwork for 40 years. Born in Tuskaloosa Alabama, he grew up during segregation, and knows first-hand of its horrors. He remembers traveling on a bus for miles, and only being allowed to use the restroom at certain stops. He says that although such Jim Crow or minstrel images may offend people, they represent a history that shouldn't be forgotten: "I have a rather good customer who collects nothing but this kind of stuff. And she has a very extensive collection of stuff that is offensive to most folks. And I sell her a lot of this stuff because she is a true collector and those of us who collect history cannot sanitize history. There are those who believe that these things that took place over a long period of time tells us exactly how blacks were viewed by white America. We were stereotyped and for hundreds of years this is how we were viewed. We cannot deny, you know, that this is the way that it was done. So why sanitize everything and pretend that this never happened?" Linton himself has collected Jim Crow postcards since he was a child. He also owns a children's school textbook that includes a story entitled, "The Ten Little Niggers." He says that although he relies on the ACLU for a lot, it would be wrong to destroy all racially offensive books. Karem Said, KPFT News, Houston. [Brackets denote content that was intended to be included in the broadcast story.] E-mail Karem Said at karemsaid@hotmail.com . This story was broadcast on June 27, 2003.