( This article revises one that appeared in the fall 2007 Mosaic.)
A closer look, however, reveals that this blazing white Jesus is a marked man, in more ways than one.
His face, hands, and feet are literally marked in black, the color of most of Sacred Heart’ s neighbors. His painting in 1967 during the Detroit civil disturbance is legendary among Detroiters, although the details of the story are not well known.
The statue is marked in a deeper, more figurative way, by the black extremities. In 1957, the symbolism of the landmark was limited and localized: it represented an expression of traditional Catholic devotional life that held special meaning primarily to those within the borders of the seminary campus. Since 1967, and to this day, the black features have transformed the image to iconic stature with universal appeal, and has become a point of pride for an entire city.
Using oral histories from those who lived at the seminary during the summer of 1967, materials from the seminary archives, and articles and letters to the editor from the Michigan Catholic and other journals, here is an attempt to tell a more complete story of Sacred Heart’ s“ Black Jesus.”
TALE OF TWO MEMORIALS“ You shall draw waters of joy out of the
Savior’ s fountain.”
So begins the encyclical Haurietis Aqua, On Devotion to the Sacred Heart, released by Pope Pius XII in the spring of 1956. The document encourages devotion to the physical heart of Jesus as a symbol of his love for humankind.
Writes Pius XII,“ Its very nature is... an exercise of our own love by which we are related to God and to other men.... [ It is ] a source of and symbol of unity, salvation and peace.”
Not surprisingly, the community of Sacred Heart College Seminary greeted Haurietis Aqua with enthusiasm. Students gathered in the auditorium to hear presentations on its rich meaning. The promulgation of the document inspired the administration, led by Rector Msgr. Francis X. Canfield, to honor the Heart of Jesus in a more permanent way. In 1956, he had erected two statues for public veneration on the seminary’ s grounds.
The first, an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus about five feet tall and fashioned of white marble, was placed in a decorative niche in the retaining wall immediately before the seminary’ s rear entrance. A caption from the April 1956 Gothic, the seminary student publication, notes the statue was“ new”; later issues show it was a favorite spot for group class photos.( The statue was replaced in 1988 by a more modern rendition, sculpted by Detroit artist Frank Varga, to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the seminary’ s founding. In 2015, Sacred Heart’ s current rector, Msgr. Todd Lajiness, retired the weatherworn image and returned the refurbished 1956 statue to the niche.)
Apparently, Monsignor Canfield felt a more public expression of the Sacred Heart devotion was called for, one that would project beyond the seminary campus and reach out to edify the greater community.
The Gothic again is a guide to the development of this second memorial. A notation in the December 1956 issue states,“ A view of the front lawn shows the Shrine in honor of the Sacred Heart well underway.” The June 1957 issue features on its cover the completed shrine with a new Sacred Heart statue, noting construction was begun the past October and is“ open to the inspiration of all.”
A photo in the December 1957 issue shows a side view of the grotto. The monumental, meticulously sculpted image of Christ stands on a stone pedestal with its arms outstretched and its exposed heart ablaze, blessing the busy intersection of Chicago and Linwood. At his feet is an intricate crown of thorns, nails, a whipping cord, and a tilted chalice, signifying the pouring out of Christ’ s mercy upon the world.
The statue is framed by an alcove of roughly-cut sandstone. Two concrete kneelers flank the grotto, and a semicircular flagstone pathway extends to the street corner. Clearly, Monsignor Canfield intended the site to be more than a landscape embellishment but also a public statement of Catholic piety and a center of active devotion.
No wrought iron fence surrounded the seminary grounds as it does today, so the public was free to pray at the shrine. The caption says the shrine was dedicated in June 1957 by former rector Bishop Henry Donnelly.
Varga, who completed extensive restorations of the statue in 2006, speculates it originated in Italy and is made of cast stone, a concrete-like mixture that is poured into a mold made from a clay sculpting. This is the image of the Sacred Heart that stands at the corner of Chicago and Linwood today, and has come to be renowned nationwide as the“ Black Jesus.”
WHO PAINTED THE STATUE?
The event has been called an insurrection, a rebellion, and a civil disturbance, depending upon your political outlook. It is generally known as the Detroit Riot of 1967, and began as a Sunday morning routine raid on an after-hours club above the Economy Printing Shop at Twelfth Street and Clairmount Avenue.
But this was no routine party the cops crashed. More than eighty people packed the club, celebrating the return of two Vietnam War veterans. Soon a crowd gathered to protest the action. Unable to make the typical mass arrest, the police retreated. Bottles were tossed, windows were broken, and chaos quickly spread throughout the city that was finally subdued five days later by city police, state troopers, National Guardsmen, and federal troops.
When the last of the fires subsided, forty-three people were dead, 1189 were injured, and more than seven thousand arrested, with hundreds of millions of dollars of property destruction.
The social reasons for the outbreak are many and are beyond the theme of this article. Nonetheless, on Sunday afternoon, June 23, 1967, the first full day of the disturbance, Linwood Avenue and the blocks surrounding Sacred Heart Seminary had become a fiery battle zone. This is also the day a remarkable act happened amidst the bedlam.
Who painted the features of the statue black? No one knows for sure. In a Detroit
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