Celebration of Life

A woman standing on a plinth holds a baby in the air high above her head with her head thrown back to look at the child.

The inscription reads: "Celebration of Life Arthur Boke Jr. was the first African American resident of Franklinton, Ohio. His story tells far more than the color of his skin. It is a story of love, selflessness, compassion, and understanding expressed by Sarah Sullivant. Her example reaches out to humanity with a mother's pure love that accepts all human beings as equal, who share each other's burdens, listen to each other's stories, and learn what it is to live in harmony.

It was Sarah Sullivant, who with her husband Lucas - founder of Columbus, made the story of Arthur Boke Jr.

In 1803, Sarah had just given birth to a son, when several days later she found at her doorstep an abandoned baby of a slave. It is what happened next that lifts the story into the rare.

Sarah, filled with the love for her own new-born son, could not bear to leave the abandoned baby without help. Urged on by a humanity very seldom seen in those days, she took the baby, and along with her own new son, nursed both to a strong and healthy childhood.

Named Arthur Boke Jr. by the Sullivants, the baby was adopted by the family and lived as son and brother until his passing in 1841. The Sullivant children, especially Joseph, whom Arthur helped raise as a loved brother, made sure Arthur was buried in the family plot. It was a testament to Arthur's inclusion in the Sullivant family. It was an example of future generations that love bridges even the deepest of divides.

Presented here as a modern tribute to the Sullivant's [sic] expression of love is "Celebration of Live," a sculpture celebrating the family's deed, and enshrined in bronze, a symbol of how all humankind can make this a better world, one child at a time. 2004"