Wall of Pride

William Walker, Eda Wade, Charles Enoch, Robin Harper (Kwasi Asante), Henri King, Jon Lockard, James Malone, Arthur Roland, Eugene Simmons, Bennie White, Wall of Pride, 1968, paint and photographic panel on brick wall, formerly located at Grace Episcopal Church at Twelfth Street and Virginia Park, Detroit.

Photo credit: Mark Rogovin, ca 1970, gift of Michelle Melin-Rogovin to the South Side Community Art Center, Chicago

A Brief History

The Wall of Pride mural was created in July 1968, on the one-year anniversary of the Detroit Uprising of 1967, as a response to that event. It was painted on an exterior wall of Grace Episcopal Church at the corner of Virginia Park Street and Twelfth Street in Northwest Detroit, amidst the remains of buildings that had been destroyed during the Uprising. Later Twelfth Street was widened and renamed Rosa Parks Boulevard. During the 1950s and 1960s, the congregation integrated under the leadership of the Reverends Henri Stines, Robert L. Potts, Marshall Hunt, and Arthur B. Williams. The congregation eventually provided great assistance to neighbors who were impacted by the Detroit Uprising of 1967.

The Wall of Pride mural ultimately imparted messages of hope, pride, resistance, and power to the Twelfth Street community until the mural was whitewashed and later shingled over in the 1970s.

After the completion of the Wall of Dignity, Walker and Wade moved on to work on the Wall of Pride mural. Jeff Huebner’s book Walls of Prophecy and Protest describes how the artists wanted to organize a mural in the area where the 1967 Detroit riots took place. They approached the clergy at Grace, located just a few blocks south of the Uprising’s epicenter.

The artists met with Reverend Marshall Hunt and Associate Rector Arthur Williams who greenlit the project. They wanted to bring a new form of social public art to the primarily conservative Black church, and thus the artists painted the mural during the Twelfth Street Black Arts Festival which took place at the church from July 22nd to 27th, the one-year anniversary of the Detroit Uprising. For this mural, Walker and Wade made plans to involve local Detroit artists to help paint the wall with the help of church community programs.

Written by Marguerite Henry

William Walker and Detroit artists, Detail from the Wall of Pride featuring images of Jomo Kenyatta, W. E. B. DuBois, Nat Turner, James Baldwin, Amiri Bakara, and others

Photo credit: Mark Rogovin, ca 1970, gift of Michelle Melin-Rogovin to the South Side Community Art Center, Chicago

Messages and Interpretations of the Wall of Pride

While planning the Wall of Pride, Walker, Wade, Reverend Hunt, and Reverend Williams developed three main goals that they wanted to accomplish through the mural.

These goals were to:

1. Depict Black historical heroes

2. Involve the local community

3. Paint during the church’s Black Arts Festival that would take place on the anniversary of the 1967 Uprising.

When displaying African American historical figures, Walker aimed to have what he described to his biographer Jeff Huebner as a “hero's theme” which showed the contributions of Black people past and present, “whether they were controversial or well-liked.” Showing historical figures was important because, according to Reverend Hunt as quoted by Susan Holmes in The Detroit Free Press, “the wall was designed for the Black man who does not know of his rich past. The mural shows Black personalities who represent the diverse elements in the Black community.” It was ultimately very important to the creators of the wall to create positive forms of representation for the Detroit African American community.

Although each of the participating artists separately contributed their own section of the wall, the Wall of Pride was unified in an uncommon way: every image was laced with themes of revolution, defiance, and pride. It included portraits of radical activists as well as people of accomplishment in the arts and entertainment:

-Malcolm X - James Baldwin

- Amiri Baraka / LeRoi Jones - Bill Cosby

- Kwame Ture / Stokely Carmichael - Martin Luther King Jr.

- H. Rap Brown - Miriam Makeba

- W.E.B. DuBois - Nina Simone

- Nat Turner - Aretha Franklin

- Jomo Kenyatta -Shaka Zulu

William Walker and Detroit artists, Detail from the Wall of Pride featuring images of Amiri Baraka, Malcolm X, Bill Cosby, and others

Photo credit: Mark Rogovin, ca 1970, gift of Michelle Melin-Rogovin to the South Side Community Art Center, Chicago

The Wall of Pride, ca. 1969, paint and photographic panel on brick wall, formerly located at Grace Episcopal Church at Twelfth Street and Virginia Park, Detroit.

Photo credit: Thomas Hagerty, 1969

When the Wall of Pride mural had its “grand reveal” on September 9th, 1968, Reverend Hunt spoke of “the hope to reach out to the people of the area with a new hand of hope and understanding.” Shortly after the mural was unveiled, the Detroit Free Press published an article titled, “Wall of Pride Brings Hope to the Ghetto.” This article further explains the efforts of the church clergy, Walker, and Wade. The article states that, “the faces [depicted in the mural] express hope in an area which gives the appearance of having lost all hope– an area of cluttered vacant lots and rows of decaying buildings.” When discussing the mural, Reverend Hunt explained that “the wall says to the people on the streets something which they do not hear in the church. It speaks of beauty where there is bleakness.” The Wall of Pride mural ultimately aimed to bring messages of hope, pride, and positivity to the Black community surrounding Grace Episcopal Church.

Written by Marguerite Henry and Miranda Ludwick

Works Cited

Jeff W. Huebner, Walls of Prophecy and Protest: William Walker and The Roots of a Revolutionary Public Art Movement (Northwestern University Press, 2019).

Susan Holmes, “Wall of Pride Brings Hope to the Ghetto,” Detroit Free Press, November 4, 1968

Nancy Manser, “Pride wells up on church wall.” The Detroit News, September 10, 1968.