Sue Copeland Jones writes:

On May 25, 1987,  Archbishop Desmond Tutu (b. 1931) was coming to give the commencement address at Oberlin College.  He had won the Nobel Peace Prize 3 years earlier for his work in civil rights and justice for South Africa.

Just before Tutu arrived, my son David Meek, an Oberlin High School senior, painted the Class of 1898 rock with this image of a South African man behind a barbed wire fence, which he discovered in a book.

The east side is painted “Pensioner in a Community Garden”- Rooigrond (Red Ground) South Africa.  The South African Council of Churches, where Tutu was the first black General Secretary (1978), had helped set up a community vegetable garden in Rooigrond.  However, its displaced community, which was fighting for its lost historic tribal land, were being threatened with further resettlement.

This image was not painted over for about 2 months, remaining longer than any other Oberlin rock painting in our memory.

Thanks Sue, for sending in this wonderful art and story.