Black Foodways

Wed, 10/02/2024 - 8:02pm

In this video compiled from dozens of interviews from the Living Oral History Project and the There Went The Neighborhood Interview Archive, participants share their memories of food and food traditions in their families, including fishing on the Huron River, hosting Fourth of July barbecues, and even starting a restaurant.

The Living Oral History Project is a partnership between the African American Cultural & Historical Museum of Washtenaw County and the Ann Arbor District Library, providing a permanent home for 50+ interviews with Black community members collected over the past decade. The collection continues to grow with interviews added each year.

The There Went The Neighborhood Interview Archive contains 35 interviews that went into the research and making of a documentary film about the closing of Jones School, produced by the Ann Arbor District Library and 7 Cylinders Studio.

There Went The Neighborhood - Studio Interview: Theresa (Dixon) Campbell

Wed, 08/07/2024 - 1:53pm

Theresa (Dixon) Campbell attended Jones School from 1957 to 1965, and she recalls being involved in Black student activism at Huron High School. She shares memories of her parents, William and Minnie Dixon, who did custodial work and owned a home in “The Old Neighborhood.”

This interview was filmed during the making of the documentary film There Went The Neighborhood: The Closing of Jones School, produced by the Ann Arbor District Library and 7 Cylinders Studio. More interviews are available in the There Went The Neighborhood Interview Archive.

Intergenerational Dialogue on the Great Migration: Alvesta Smith

Sat, 10/01/2022 - 3:24pm

Intergenerational Dialogue on the Great Migration: Betty Thomas

Sat, 10/01/2022 - 3:23pm

Legacies Project Oral History: Mary Frazier

Thu, 01/16/2020 - 9:10am

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.

AACHM Oral History: Audrey Lucas

Thu, 12/01/2016 - 3:22pm

Please take a moment to take our Living Oral History Survey and let us know what you learned.

Audrey Lucas was born in 1934 and raised in Ann Arbor where she fondly recalls her school days Jones School. She talks about activities at the Dunbar Center where she had the pleasure of singing at various city events, and some of Ann Arbor's black neighborhoods and businesses. Ms. Lucas worked for the University of Michigan Health System for 47 years, the last 35 before her retirement as a human resources consultant.

AACHM Oral History: Tessie Freeman

Sun, 09/28/2014 - 2:30pm

Please take a moment to take our Living Oral History Survey and let us know what you learned.

Tessie Ola Freeman was born June 19, 1924 in Alabama and has lived in Washtenaw County since 1947. An avid lover of poetry and spectator sports, Ms. Freeman raised three children while doing domestic work and dressing hair to supplement her family’s income. Ms. Freeman is proud of her children and encouraged them to get an education, even going so far as to enroll at Wayne State University at the same time her youngest son. Ms. Freeman has always spoken for herself and she’s proud to share her story.

AACHM Oral History: Johnnie Mae Seeley

Fri, 09/20/2013 - 4:19pm

Please take a moment to take our Living Oral History Survey and let us know what you learned.

Johnnie Mae Jackson Seeley was raised in Sarepta, Louisiana and moved to Ann Arbor with her husband Howard M. Seeley in 1954. She joined the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor where she was later crowned a Deaconess, and soon she became known for her culinary skills and hospitality, which led to some of the community's largest gatherings, first at her farm on the outside of Ann Arbor and later on Beakes St. For years her garden provided food for Sunday communal meals and for the Human Service Project which donated food to homeless shelters.