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Hopes Are High For African-American History Museum

Hopes Are High For African-American History Museum image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
November
Year
1993
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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By JUDSON BRANAM

NOV 17 1993

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Did you know that the phrase “the real McCoy” was first uttered in deference to a black inventor from Ypsilanti? That railroad bridges between Ann Arbor and Dexter were designed by an African-American? Washtenaw County’s rich history of African-American leadership and innovation - from Underground Railroad stops to an invention that kept the regular trains rolling down the line - is the focus of plans to create a new museum.

“There’s a lot of history here that people aren’t aware of -we just feel this history needs to be passed on,” says Joyce Hunter, chairwoman of the Washtenaw County Committee for an African-American Cultural and Historical Museum. “It’s something that will not only benefit blacks, but all ethnic groups in the area.”

There is no set timeline for bringing the museum plan to reality, but the group has formed a site committee to find a location as a first priority. Along with searching out a site for the museum, the group hopes to assemble the historical record that exists on the black experience here, and to collect oral histories from longtime county residents.

“Our main focus is going to be on the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area,”
Hunter says. “We need to take a look at the contributions of blacks in both of the areas and then kind of go from there.”

Organizers began the museum effort after accepting a challenge from Dr. Margaret Burroughs, founder of DuSable Museum in Chicago, Hunter says. Work began in February, and the committee recently began a series of events aimed at focusing attention on local black history and the museum project.

“It’s a dire need because of the richness of the history here,” says committee member Coleman Jewitt, whose family history in Ann Arbor dates to 1856. His was one of the first black families here, and his grandfather, George Jewitt II, was the first black football player at the University of Michigan in 1890.

Jewitt ticks off names of prominent blacks in local history: Elijah McCoy, the Ypsilanti inventor whose lubrication cups allowed the railroads to run longer between stops; Frederick Pelham, who designed the railway bridges over the Huron River between Ann Arbor and Dexter around 1910, and Simeon Carson, one of the first doctors to perform Caesarean sections in the late 1800s.

“Here’s a guy who graduated from the Ann Arbor schools,” Jewitt says, “and I bet 9 out of 10 people don’t know who he is.”

Jewitt says the committee has a good mix of community leaders and blacks from the area’s Canadian and Southern heritages, so he’s optimistic the project can move quickly.

“I think we’ve got a good basis there, we just need people to come together."

The committee is offering memberships for small children ($1), teens ($3), general ($10), seniors ($5), organizations $100, corporate $200 and up.

“We wanted the children in from birth to 12 so that parents take an interest with their children and they don’t wait until they’re adults and say, 'Where are my roots?”’ says membership chairwoman Willie M. Edwards.

“Some of those beginnings are not always pleasant, but it is history and it is a fact, so they need to learn it, accept it and move on.”

To join the Washtenaw County Committee for an African-American Cultural and Historical Museum, call membership chairwoman Willie Edwards at 994-6513. The group plans a program from 4-6 p.m. Nov. 21 at Brown AME Chapel in Ypsilanti, focusing on African-American churches here.

Around 1910, Frederick Pelham, left, designed the bridge over the Huron River in Dexter, below.