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Ann Street Black Business District

For most of the twentieth century, the 100 block of East Ann Street was a hub for Black-owned businesses in downtown Ann Arbor. A rotating set of barber shops, shoe shine parlors, dry cleaners, restaurants, blues bars, and pool rooms formed the backbone of Black social life, especially for men. The district stretched around the corner onto North Fourth Avenue where the Colored Welfare League housed Black-owned businesses and community organizations such as the early Dunbar Center.

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Legacies Project Oral History: Mary Frazier

Mary Frazier was born in 1910 in Marion, Arkansas, where her father owned a 140-acre cotton farm. She describes sharecropping, Black land-ownership, and the devastating effects of the boll weevil infestation on the cotton industry in the early twentieth century. When her father’s farm went under, she moved to Detroit to live with her aunt in the Black Bottom neighborhood. Over the course of her career, Frazier worked as a domestic laborer, hospital worker, and U.S. Postal Service employee. She completed her high school education at age 83.

Mary Frazier was interviewed in partnership with the Museum of African American History of Detroit and Y Arts Detroit in 2010 as part of the Legacies Project.

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Legacies Project Oral History: David Griffis

David Griffis has lived in Detroit for his entire life except for two years of service in the military, when he went to Korea. He worked as a Personnel Technician for the Michigan Employment Security Commission and for Chrysler’s personnel department. He received a degree in business administration from Wayne State University, and went on to run two nursing home facilities in Detroit for over fifteen years. He has two daughters, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

David Griffis was interviewed in partnership with the Museum of African American History of Detroit and Y Arts Detroit in 2010 as part of the Legacies Project.

Car Wash to Raise Funds for Charitable Projects at Christ Temple Apostolic Faith Church of Ypsilanti, August 1965 Photographer: Doug Fulton

Car Wash to Raise Funds for Charitable Projects at Christ Temple Apostolic Faith Church of Ypsilanti, August 1965 image
Year:
1965
Published In:
Ann Arbor News, August 31, 1965
Caption:
One of three car washes operated by Christ Temple Apostolic Faith Church of Ypsilanti which provide employment and pay for support and education for under-privileged teen-agers is shown above. Keeping things busting here is Deacon Elray Lipsey (left) in charge of the congregation's charitable projects. At work are (left to right) Oscar Loveless, John Cameron, Wilson Burton and Irvin Jackson Ricks, and in front Luke Edward and John Loveless.
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Gerald Edwards Poses in His New Plastics Factory in Ypsilanti, January 1995 Photographer: Lon Horwedel

Gerald Edwards Poses in His New Plastics Factory in Ypsilanti, January 1995 image
Year:
1995
Published In:
Ann Arbor News, January 27, 1995
Caption:
Gerald Edwards inside the plastic injection factory he soon will be running in the Washtenaw Business Park, located just south of I-94 at Ypsilanti's Huron Street exit.
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