AACHM BWC Interview: Mike Bass

Fri, 09/15/2023 - 2:55pm

There Went The Neighborhood - Audio Interview: Donald Simons

Fri, 03/10/2023 - 3:17pm

Donald Simons grew up on Fuller Street and attended Jones School as an elementary student in the 1950s. He recalls being encouraged by his sixth grade teacher Harry Mial and coach Andy Anderson. Mr. Simons went on to teach physical education.

More interviews are available in the There Went The Neighborhood Interview Archive.

AACHM Oral History: Mike Bass

Wed, 08/10/2022 - 3:45pm

Michael Thomas Bass was born in 1945 to Thomas and Louise Bass. His parents–a doctor and a teacher–were influential members of Ypsilanti’s Black community. Bass excelled in football, basketball, and track. He was senior class president of Ypsilanti High School in 1963. He received a BA in Education from the University of Michigan. Bass is best known for playing in the National Football League for the Washington Commanders (formerly Redskins) from 1969 to 1975. After retiring from the NFL, Bass ran a resort in the Bahamas. He and his wife Rosita now reside in Florida and they have two daughters, Kimberly and Louise.

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AACHM Oral History: Leah Bass-Baylis

Tue, 08/02/2022 - 10:04am

Leah Bass-Baylis was born in 1954 in Ypsilanti. Her parents Thomas and Louise Bass–a doctor and teacher–were influential members of Ypsilanti’s Black community. She studied dance at Ypsilanti’s Randazzo Dance Theater and graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta in 1976. She also holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Change from the University of Southern California. Bass-Baylis was a dancer and choreographer for many Broadway shows, including performing in The Tap Dance Kid. In her later career as an administrator, she developed arts education programs in Los Angeles. She and her husband Doug Baylis have four children.

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AACHM Oral History: Dolores and James Turner

Wed, 09/22/2021 - 11:05am

Dolores Preston Turner was born in Ann Arbor in the early 1940s, and her family lived in a small historically Black neighborhood on Woodlawn Avenue. She graduated from Ann Arbor High School, where she met her future husband, James Turner. She remembers moving into their first apartment in Pittsfield Village as a result of fair housing protests in Ann Arbor in the 1960s. Turner has two master’s degrees and she taught English at Huron High School for 30 years. Dolores and James celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in September 2021.

View historical materials for Dolores Preston Turner.

AACHM Oral History: Patricia Horne McGee

Wed, 09/22/2021 - 11:03am

Patricia Horne McGee was born in 1946 in Ypsilanti, where she attended Perry Elementary and Ypsilanti High School. She recalls the mutual support and accomplishments of many childhood friends and neighbors, and reflects on rising tensions between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Horne McGee has two master's degrees from the University of Michigan and UCLA. She taught child development and social work for fifteen years at Ferris State College and Mercy College. After leaving academia, she worked for the Wayne County Intermediate School District and she was director of Head Start for Washtenaw County.

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