East-side Detroit mural tells community's story

Hubert Massey used to be a sign painter, working on billboards year-round when they were still hand-painted.

Although painting billboards is approaching lost-art status, Massey’s time as a “walldog,” working outdoors in less-than-ideal, sometimes subfreezing weather, has continued to serve him well as evidenced by a recently completed mural, the second of two installments, on Detroit’s east side.

Massey, a Kresge Artist fellow, brought in a team of about a half-dozen artists to help finish the project, which involved transferring drawings to the concrete surface and applying 45 gallons of paint.

Altogether, this giant piece of public art measures 1,500 feet long by 15 feet high. It covers two sections of what at times has been a controversial mile-and-a-half-long sound barrier wall separating a neighborhood from the Stellantis Jeep plants on the other side that had prompted odor complaints, concerns about environmental justice and regulatory action by the state over emissions.

The wall and the mural are a result of the planning and community benefits agreement connected to the 2019 announcement by what was then-Fiat Chrysler Automobiles that it would invest $4.5 billion in southeast Michigan and build the first new vehicle assembly plant in the city of Detroit in three decades.

Massey, whose work as a muralist and fresco artist is visible around metro Detroit at Huntington Place, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Lawrence Technological University and other locations, said he kept the community at the forefront of his planning.

Massey, who grew up in Flint but has lived in Detroit for more than 40 years, used community meetings to decide which stories should be included so as not to impose his vision, he said, but rather to reflect the vision of the people who live closest to the artwork.

“It’s a bigger picture than me," Massey told the Free Press on Tuesday, standing across Beniteau Street from the project. "I look at it as an opportunity to bring the light on a community that might not have the light shined on it, by creating a mural like this to tell the community’s story basically,”

The vision is one that highlights the people living in the area now and those who came before. Here are some of the images included in the second section of the mural:

• Three purple lions, representing the mascot for the nearby Southeastern High School Jungaleers.

• “3030” and “313,” the street number for the school and Detroit’s famed area code, respectively.

• Images of civil rights fighter Sarah Elizabeth Ray and the SS Columbia, the Boblo boat on which she was refused travel, an event that ended with a successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge.

• Scenes from Detroit, including the carousel on the RiverWalk.

• A man standing with his foot on a classic red Dodge truck running board.

That last image came from a man who grew up in the neighborhood and told Massey about his dad working at Chrysler in the 1940s. He later brought Massey, who turns 66 in May, a photo, which is the basis for the image on the wall.

It’s those kinds of personal stories and connections that Massey wanted to include.

“They become sort of jewels you can put in a mural. People relate to that,” Massey said.

Those community conversations informed the first section of the mural as well. Massey included an image of Dr. Ossian Sweet's Garland Street home, which Sweet was forced to defend from an angry mob after moving to the white neighborhood in 1925. That altercation led to a fatal shooting and a trial involving famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow that ended in acquittal.

“I would have had no clue without having those conversations,” Massey said of that incident.

Tying the entire project together is a ribbon of colors and symbols — something seen on the first section of the mural and a theme that Massey has used in other projects — representing various ethnicities that have had a cultural impact on the area, including Italians, African Americans and Native Americans.

The project’s inclusive nature is one of the reasons Massey cited for the response. While work was underway, people passing in their vehicles would honk their horns and ask about getting their kids involved. He said he’d mentored one student from Southeastern High School.

“It’s a great community to work for, and I say that humbly … to be able to celebrate this community and bring light to this community and share all the light that it has,” Massey said.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mural on wall near Jeep plants tells community's story