Christian Science Monitor Article “Artist Dramatizes Negro Spirituals”
January 24, 1955
Magazine Paper
Ruth Starr Rose was the artist responsible for most of the images in this gallery. She was interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor in 1955. The writer, Harriet B. Blackburn, quoted the artist, “How many artists can say: “I get great, great happiness from my work?” as well as her words expressing the philosophy behind her pursuit: “You cannot dramatize the feelings of a people that have come out of great suffering, unless you share their ideals.”
In the piece, she describes her work on the massive fresco, Pharaoh’s Army Got Drownded, which was noted as the first work of art made by a white artist for a church whose congregation was of African descent. Made to honor the courageous son of the minister of the Copperville Church, the fresco depicts the pastor and church members approaching the Red Sea. His son is shown as an angel; although the studies reveal that he was a diver, which was not surprising for a person who grew up at the water’s edge.