
There Went The Neighborhood: Old Neighborhood Walking Tour
This filmed walking tour was created during production of There Went The Neighborhood: The Closing of Jones School by the Ann Arbor District Library and 7 Cylinders Studio (7CS). Led by three former Jones School students–Roger Brown, Cheryl (Jewett) O’Neal, and Omer Jean (Dixon) Winborn–the tour describes changes that have taken place in the neighborhood surrounding the school over the past several decades. Key stops in order of appearance include the former Jones School, Ann Street Black Business District, Dunbar Center, Bethel AME Church, Wheeler Park, and Second Baptist Church.
The route (although filmed in a different order) was inspired by the Living Oral History Project’s Walking Tour of a Historically Black Neighborhood in Ann Arbor, which was created in partnership between the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County (AACHM) and the Ann Arbor District Library. Check out that tour to view these locations in person alongside historical photographs and interview excerpts!
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Reverend Lyman S. Parks, Pastor of Bethel AME Church From 1954 to 1964

Year:
c.1964
AACHM Oral History: Carol Allen
Carol Allen was born in Alton, Illinois in 1945. Her parents Janie and Thomas Ross moved to Ann Arbor in 1951 and purchased a home on Fifth Avenue. Her father was a cook and her mother was a nurse’s aid and custodian. Carol recalls raising her son Carl Jr. with her husband while living on the second floor of her family’s home. She got her associate’s degree in practical nursing and worked in that field for most of her career. In January 2023 she and her husband Carl celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. They have two sons and several grandchildren.
2017 Calendar - The Village That Raised Their Children: The History of Ann Arbor's Black Community

2012 Calendar - The Village That Raised Their Children: The History of Ann Arbor's Black Community

AACHM Oral History: Jennifer and Hershal Brown
Hershal Brown was born in 1946. He lived off and on with his parents in Gary, Indiana, but he was raised primarily by his grandparents in Ann Arbor. He remembers having many role models at Bethel AME Church. After graduating from Ann Arbor High School, Brown served in the military in Spain. He worked at Ford Motor Company in pre-prototype coordination for 31 years. He also worked and volunteered for the Ann Arbor Public Schools and the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s department. He married his longtime sweetheart Jennifer Benton in 1968 and they have two daughters, Charisse and Heather.
View historical materials for Hershal Brown.
Jennifer Brown was born in 1948 in Ann Arbor to Charles and Laurel Benton. She recalls learning to fish with her father and attending Jones School. Her mother encouraged her to take advanced classes in high school. Brown worked in banking and bank management for the first half of her career while her children were young. Later in life she got her master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan and became a social worker. She has been married to her husband Hershal Brown for 53 years. They have two daughters, Charisse and Heather, and three grandchildren.
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on North Fourth Avenue, July 1958 Photographer: Duane Scheel

Year:
1958
Ann Arbor News, July 3, 1958
Caption:
LANDMARK CHURCH: One of the oldest churches in Ann Arbor is the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at 632 N. Fourth Ave., built in 1891. Funds for building the church were contributed by city businessmen and the labor was furnished free by the church members.
TV Series On Negro To Open

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Tom Thumb Wedding at Bethel AME Church, undated

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AACHM Living Oral History Project Walking Tour
Presented in Partnership between the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County and the Ann Arbor District Library