Leaders from San Francisco’s black community stood up for the preservation of George Washington High School’s controversial mural on Tuesday, saying the “Life of Washington” artwork provides an important education about American history — for better or worse.

The Rev. Arnold Townsend, of the Northern California NAACP, said that painting over the mural, which depicts the nation’s first president and high school’s namesake in various stages of his life, from a craftsman and soldier to a slave owner, would be akin to “whitewashing history to make it reflect a history that never existed.”

Townsend spoke at a news conference beside the Rev. Amos Brown, head of the San Francisco NAACP, as well as former newspaper columnist Noah Griffin and Dewey Crumpler, an artist who created an alternative mural in the mid-1960s when opposition was first raised to the Washington mural, which also depicts soldiers standing over the body of a dead American Indian.

San Francisco Unified School District’s Board of Education voted June 25 to paint over the mural — actually a historic series of 13 frescoes — after months of debate between those who say the paintings offended students and those who believe art should be protected and used to educate students about the nation’s dark past.

The mural was painted by Russian artist and San Francisco resident Victor Arnautoff, a communist who was highly critical of America’s history of racism.

The board’s unanimous vote followed a recommendation by a community task force appointed by the district to address concerns raised by parents and students about the 1,600-square-foot mural.

Brown acknowledged that those who want the mural destroyed have good intentions, but he called on opponents to the artwork to consider the bigger picture.

“There comes a time you need to do some deeper thinking,” Brown said, “and not surface thinking, not sound bites.”

Crumpler, who was chosen by the Black Panthers to paint a counter-mural that depicts African American, Latino and Asian Americans struggling against oppression, said critics of the Washington mural fail to understand that Arnautoff’s goal for the work was to expose America’s first president for who he was, warts and all.

“These murals created in the ’30s critiqued the man who was believed to be the truth-teller of America,” Crumpler said.

Today’s students aren’t taught to interpret artistic imagery, he added, so it’s likely they’ve come away with a superficial impression.

“Art’s role, if it’s any good, is to make us uncomfortable with the status quo,” Crumpler said.

In addition to holding the news conference Tuesday at Third Baptist Church, the leaders said they’re planning a petition drive.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan