(CNN) A painting of a Confederate flag and a mural depicting a lynching have been removed from the walls of a Tennessee school gymnasium.

The mural showed a white man, dressed in blue, hanging from a rope tied to a tree branch. Another person was standing nearby, in a red jersey, and holding a Confederate flag.

The painting was intended to depict an athletic team rivalry.

It's unclear how long the paintings have been inside the South Cumberland Elementary School, located 100 miles east of Nashville, but a complaint was first made in December by a concerned janitor of a nearby elementary school.

On Friday, after months of calls and emails to the superintendent and the school board, David Clark, took his concerns public.

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