Asynchronous Learning Module for…

Telling the Stories That Must be Told: An Inquiry into Local Black History with the AACHM of

Washtenaw County and Dr. Kimberly Ransom

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Dear Viewer,

Thank you for engaging with this asynchronous learning module. We ask that you engage with the artifacts in these slides in advance of the BLM Week of Action event on Thursday February 4, 2021. This will help you to come to the session on Thursday with valuable background knowledge of local Black history of Ann Arbor.

The artifacts included here are all gathered from a digital archive, the Living Oral History Digital Collection, and extend upon the Living Oral History Project Exhibit. The archives are housed on the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) website and developed in partnership with the African American Cultural & Historical Museum (AACHM) of Washtenaw County.

To view the selected artifacts, click on the links in the slides (text underlined in white or blue). We provide links instead of photos due to copyright regulations.

On Thursday, February 4, we will have an opportunity to learn from board members and supporters of the AACHM and from Dr. Kimberly Ransom, an SOE community member. Our guests will share their own oral histories with us, which we can each integrate with the background knowledge developed through studying the artifacts in this asynchronous learning opportunity.

It is our hope that these learning opportunities will enrich our individual and collective understandings about the history of our local Black community - such that we are better poised to take action to support Black lives.

Our thanks to the AACHM, and our valued guests, who we have much to learn from.

In hope and solidarity,

The Intergenerational, Black Families & Black Villages Planning Pod

We launch our module by learning from Deborah Meadows, AACHM

Program Chair. (Click underlined text in slides that follow.)

Article: African American History in Kerrytown

An interview with Deborah Meadows (conducted by Nia Nickerson)

“Pause and reflect. Recognize that Black history is American history, and American history is our

history.”(Deborah Meadows, AACHM Program Chair)

We take guidance from Dr. Kimberly Ransom, SOE expert in historiography

and Black schools.

Viewing Instructions In the following slides, you will view historical artifacts in four categories: Education, Housing, Community Centers, and Faith. The artifacts include photographs, newspaper articles, and city planning documents. With each artifact, take time to reflect upon the following questions, developed by Dr. Kimberly Ransom. Feel free to take notes, if you would like.

1. Jot down your observations, without inference first. What do you see? What information does the artifact convey?

2. What does the artifact help you to understand about Black life in our local community?

3. What is this artifact calling you to do? In what ways does the artifact push you to take action? Please conceive of action as broadly as possible - action can be as simple as an introspective move of engaging in a new way; or as complex as taking a political action.

4. What else comes up for you?

(Click underlined blue or white text in slides that follow.)

EDUCATION: K-12

No Problems Found In

Jones School Transfers

(1965)

Blacks Hold Meeting,

Call School Boycott (1971)

Children Being Read To At Jones School (1972)

Being Black Plus Living In Ann Arbor Equals...? (1987)

EDUCATION: UNIVERSITY

U Days Unhappy - Black Alumni (1978)

HOUSING

A 1956 Urban Renewal Plan“In 1956 civic leaders launched a plan, using federal urban renewal funds, to remove

"blight" and rebuild this mostly black neighborhood. Many buildings around you were proposed for demolition. Both black and white leaders disagreed among themselves whether the plan would improve the neighborhood or destroy the fabric of the black community. At least 500 residents would have been displaced, 400 of them black. In 1959 City Council narrowly passed the plan, but newly elected Mayor Cecil Creal vetoed it as too disruptive.

Other forces changed the neighborhood. City Council passed a fair housing law in 1963 and a stronger one in 1965. The neighborhood school, Jones Elementary (later Community High), was 75% black in 1965 when it was closed and its students dispersed by bus to other schools in an effort at desegregation. By the 1970s blacks were leaving the neighborhood. The churches moved. In that decade, black and white citizens working together defeated plans for a downtown bypass that would have split the neighborhood.”

Text quoted from: https://aadl.org/aastreets/site9b/aastreets_kerrytown_map

NAACP Urges Housing Law(1962)

COMMUNITY CENTERS

Know Your Neighbor (1958)

Black Arts Festival At The Ann Arbor Community

Center (1971)

Ann Arbor Community Center: Former Dunbar

Center Was Once The Focal Point Of Ann Arbor's Black

Community (1995)

FAITH

New Second Baptist Church Nearing

Completion (March 1953)

Puppet Play Prepared (1963)

Taking Turns at the Slide at Second Baptist Church

Day Care Center (1971)

Supplemental Resources

We hope that these slides offered you an opportunity to develop new background knowledge about the intergenerational Black Village in Ann Arbor. At the synchronous session on February 4, 2021, we will learn more from our guests’ oral histories and expertise.

The AACHM offers our community many more ways to continue learning about the local Black Village. Please be sure to visit the AACHM when it is safe to do so and consider becoming a member. In addition to the museum and the digital archive, you can also engage in self-guided and guided tours of local African American historical sites. See the below links for more information:

● Self-guided historical journey● Ann Arbor African American historical map● AACHM Kerrytown Info

Further Recommended ReadingWhat About Educational Segregation? (Conclusion): Racial Study Touches On All Schools

An Open Letter to the Citizens of Ann Arbor (Written by Executive Board of the Ann Arbor chapter of the NAACP, 1960)

Learn More About Jones School

Researchers Map Ann Arbors Racist History Of Housing Discrimination

Ann Arbor's Historically Black Neighborhood Is The Hottest Market In Town

West Side Not Water Hill

A Tale Of Two Cities: Socioeconomic Diversity And The Future Of Ann Arbor And Ypsilanti

Journey through Underground Railroad in Washtenaw County Continues

‘We’re a Part of This World Too’

UM Research Raises Awareness of Racially Restrictive Covenants in Ann Arbor Housing