Radicalization: Black Nationalism
Harold Neal was sympathetic to Black Nationalism, which was advocated by Malcolm X. Unlike the integrationist approach of Martin Luther King, Jr., Black Nationalism held that, for the betterment of their people, African Americans should separate themselves from white society and develop their own economy and culture. In the mid-1960s Neal began to create more socially conscience works of art. Reluctant Flowering depicts a 13-year old girl, who, already a prostitute, has become pregnant.
Reluctant Flowering, 1966
Harold Neal
oil on canvas
Private Collection
Radicalization: Black Christian Nationalism
Related to Black Nationalism was Black Christian Nationalism, which was led in Detroit by the charismatic Rev. Alfred Cleage, Jr., pastor of Central Congregational Church (later the Shrine of the Black Madonna). To Cleage, white Christianity was a tool of oppression. Neal, apparently, agreed. His painting of a man with a cross seems to depict a white Jesus bringing the chains of slavery to Blacks. This was, according to some interpretations, sanctioned by the Bible in Ephesians, VI, 5-7: Bonded “servants, be obedient to … your masters …as unto Christ.” Here revenge is sought by a black bird who is gouging out the eye of the white Christ.
Title Unknown, 1966
Harold Neal
oil on board
Neal Family Collection, Detroit
Sacred Mother and Child, before 1971
Henri Umbaji King
oil on board
Shirley and Darnell Kaigler, Detroit
Rev. Cleage believed that Jesus was Black, due, in his words, “to the historical intermingling of African and Mediterranean races.” African-American parishioners and others were better able to identify with this incarnation of God.
The Black Messiah, c. 1967
Jon Onye Lockard
pastel on canvas
Grand Valley State University Collection,
Gift of the Family of Joseph and Mary Stevens