This old neighborhood grocery and filling station, located on Georgia Highway 116 just west of downtown Shiloh, will definitely get your attention. It features an amazing mural, with loose vibes of Davinci’s The Last Supper, that places Black historical figures in a colorful tableau. It’s an important work of “Outsider/Folk Art” and deserves further recognition.

My friend Cynthia Jennings and I found it completely by accident this past weekend. According to family members, the artist is Kinyotter Turner. I had a delightful conversation with Mr. Turner’s mother, Jeanette, who was rightfully proud of her son’s work. She said Kinyotter’s uncle owned the building, which has more recently been used as a pool room. The image is based on The Last Supper, but since it adorns a pool room and is near a church, he didn’t formally give it that title. She noted that he had always been interested in history and spent a lot of time reading about it when he was younger. And she stated that he has always had a talent for drawing and art. After his son passed away a few years ago, he made drawings of him and gave them to Mrs. Jeanette. She said they were amazing likenesses.

The artist identified the figures, but some were difficult to decipher. I believe the prophet Muhammad and Jesus to be at the center. [Since Muhammad is generally not portrayed in art, the back to the viewer would fall within the acceptable bounds of ambiguous interpretation.] The other figures are Black revolutionaries and educators.

Dred Scott? (c. 1799-1858), Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955), Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1919-1968), Jesus

Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975)

Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), Muhammad (c. 570-632), Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), Malcolm X (1925-1965)

Noble Drew Ali (1886-1929), Nat Turner (1800-1831), Paul Robeson (1898-1976)

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963), in red at bottom right.