Jim Crow Rock, the landmark on the foreshore at Hunter's Quay near Dunoon was painted grey over the weekend – before having its features restored by Wednesday.

It was painted overnight on Saturday with grey paint by, it appears, somebody in a hurry - as they didn't manage to paint the top of the rock. By Wednesday morning, however, the much-loved rock was restored to its former infamy.
The same thing happened last year, with the crow’s features being obliterated on June 21, but repainted within weeks.
Councillor Bruce Marshall, chair of the Bute and Cowal Area Committee, told the Standard on Tuesday: “I was unaware that Jim Crow had again been defaced and find it hard to believe that anyone can be so petty.    
“Jim Crow has been a landmark on the foreshore at Hunter’s Quay all of my life and I would not like to see it permanently lost.”

Paint tins marked ‘Drummond’s International Grey’ were found near the rock after last year’s incident and police appealed for information regarding this brand. We understand that the same brand of paint was used in the latest incident.
This paint is a 'concept' of artist Bill Drummond, who achieved notoriety with pop group KLF. In an anti-capitalist statement the band made Britain’s biggest ever bank withdrawal, £1m, in 1994 – before burning the cash on the isle of Jura.
Each tin of Drummond’s International Grey bears an exhortation to use it to paint over anything you find “morally or aesthetically offensive.”
Mr Drummond sells his paint for £25 a tin through his website.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for painting out the rock’s features – yet. On reading this story on www,dunoon-observer.com on Sunday, one reader responded on the online forum: “What is the deal...if the Phantom Painter has a problem with Jim Crow why not have the courage of your convictions... tell us who and why.”

There is a tradition of painted rocks on the Clyde Estuary.  Tut-Tut at Kilcreggan resembles a pharaoh’s death mask while the Maids of Bute were painted to resemble women. There is also a rock painted to represent a crocodile on the foreshore at Millport and a seal at Corrie on Arran.

JIM Crow rock says different things to different people. To many Dunoon folk it represents a tradition peculiar to the town.  Nothing more than a local landmark of interest, neither intending or causing offence. Others, however, see it as something far more sinister.
Racism can never be justified. The Jim Crow laws, which saw black people in certain states of the USA treated as lesser beings thantheir white ‘masters’, were an affront to all that is decent.  The Jim Crow laws were named after a song performed by white minstrels wearing black make-up. An extract from the lyric:     

The very name Jim Crow is thought to come from an extremely insulting description of a black man. Originally thought to have been Jimmy Crow, with Jimmy being dialect for Jemmy and Crow being short for crowbar – a tool often used by burglars, the obvious implication being that burglary was a typical occupation of black men. Oh – and in case you didn’t get it, the ‘joke’ is that crows are black.

But – does Cowal have a symbol of oppression and brutality as a landmark?

In an age where international news was not widely spread, it is unlikely that Dunoon people knew about these laws when the rock was originally painted, possibly around 1900.
It seems more likely that the rock was originally named after a Thomas Ingoldsby rhyming story The Jackdaw of Rheims. which was popular in Victorian times, The poem, about a particularly pious jackdaw made ito a saint, ends with the stanza:

Whatever the original intention, the early Jim Crow rock, as can be seen from the picture (below) from the Standard's archives, looked like a crow. Perhaps it is the bright red lips, similar to a music-hall caricature of a black person, which cause offence. Perhaps changing this feature might appease those who would obliterate a feature rather than discuss it?

Cowal folk do not see the rock as racist. A poll on www.dunoon-observer.com asking if Jim Crow should stay or go currently has over 96 per cent of respondents saying that he should stay (on Wednesday).

There is also an argument that those who see racism in the object are simply reading too much into it. We may never know, though, as the wielder of the grey paint brush prefers to remain anonymous.

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