The battle to save Mountain View’s history

After decades of weathering the elements with little maintenance “The Black Family” statue had deteriorated. The statue was taken out of Neal Petties Mountain View Community Park. It could have disappeared into obscurity, but Jeffrey Hayes wouldn’t let his community forget about it.

First unveiled in 1974, the statue in southeastern San Diego was modeled after an abstract painting Rossie Wade created of a Black family of four. Hayes’ initial efforts to replace the statue weren’t received with the same enthusiasm. For him the statue was a piece of not-so-distant history that was being forgotten, so he worked to remind the city how it got there.

He found a picture of his wife, Kesha, in front of the statue at a very young age, and a photo from the San Diego History Center of the statue’s dedication ceremony with Wade, the artist.

Those photos were just the beginning.

Spoiler alert: Hayes and the growing number of people who are invested in bringing “The Black Family” back caught the city’s attention. The reborn statue will be unveiled on Juneteenth. Read about what the uphill climb to keep this piece of art and community history alive, as reported by our JW August. 

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