Three
months later, as Ceciliaville was becoming a reality, Detroit, which had become
a symbol of hope in race relations in America, turned into a nightmare of shattered
illusions. Rioting, burning, and looting began on Sunday, July 23rd,
1967. At the conclusion of 5 days of rioting, 43 people lay dead, 1189 injured,
7000 people had been arrested, 5,000 homeless, and property damage ran five
hundred million dollars, symbolized by the almost total destruction of the
Twelfth Street shopping district.
Some
of the newspaper, magazine, and television stories about the disturbances
featured a picture of a pale stone statue of Christ at the Sacred Heart
Seminary. During the violence the face and hands of the statue had been -
quite carefully - painted black. Over the years the statue was repainted
from black to white and white and to black again. Today the statue is
fenced off and remains black acknowledging Jesus' presence in the community.
A BLACK CHRIST
While the violence swirled around St. Cecilia's leaving it an oasis of relative peace, the imprint of the week's incredible events was left on every mind.
In August of the following year, when noted artist and parishioner DeVon Cunningham asked Father Ellis if he could hold an art exhibit on the parish grounds with proceeds to go to the school, Father Ellis asked him instead to paint a large mural with a Black Christ on the dome of the church apse. He agreed immediately. " Today, we both laugh about it...", Father Ellis wrote in his column later, adding that he had, until that moment, never seen any of the artist's paintings. "I accepted him on faith. DeVon himself confessed the Spirit painted the face of Christ for him.
The thirty year old Mr. Cunningham painted the powerful bearded face of the Black Christ without one mis-stroke, in a few hours, despite the fact that he had tied himself to the scaffold because of fear of heights. As the entire parish riveted its attention during September on Denny McClain and the Detroit Tigers moving game by exciting game towards their first American League pennant since 1945, and, in October, on their four-three victory over Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, Mr. Cunningham continued to work under the curved dome, holding on to the scaffold rail with one hand and painting with the other. The completion of the mural took approximately two months.
Continued
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