Diego Rivera was commissioned by the organizers of the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition to paint a large-scale fresco during the run of the fair. It was the centerpiece of Art in Action, an innovative exhibit where fairgoers could watch artists create their work.
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Our mission is to return Rivera's mural to the position of public importance and influence envisioned by its creator.

After the fair closed, the mural was intended to be placed in the new library of San Francisco Junior College (now City College of San Francisco). This library was part of a grand architectural plan developed by Timothy Pflueger, a prominent local architect, one of the organizers of the fair, and Rivera's patron and friend.

World War Two interrupted these plans. Pflueger's library was never built and the ten panels of the mural were crated and stored first on the fairgrounds and then at the College until Rivera's death in 1957. That year, Milton Pflueger, Timothy's younger brother, proposed to install the mural in the lobby of the new campus theater. The mural was moved into this lobby in 1961.

The Diego Rivera Mural Project, sponsored by the City College of San Francisco, has as its mission the return of the mural to the position of public importance and influence envisioned by its creator.