Legacies Project Oral History: Mary Martin

Thu, 01/16/2020 - 9:11am

Mary Dyson Martin was born in 1914 in Dallas, Texas. Her grandmother had been enslaved in Tennessee, and she grew up conscious of that legacy. Martin graduated from Fisk University and got her masters in library science at the University of Illinois. She taught swimming lessons for the YWCA Girl Reserves during the summers. She was a high school librarian in Gary, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan for over thirty years. Her husband was a doctor and a World War II veteran. They were married for 47 years and had two children.

Mary Martin 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.

Legacies Project Oral History: Robert Harrington

Tue, 12/10/2019 - 10:58am

Robert Harrington was born in 1939 in the East Side of Detroit. His father worked for the National Bank of Detroit, and his mother was a professor at Wayne State University. He remembers the everyday routines of the 1950s including milk delivery and food preservation. As a child he enjoyed visiting Belle Isle, Boblo Island, and going to the movies. A civil engineer, Harrington specializes in pavement for racetracks and is a consultant for NASCAR.

Robert Harrington was interviewed by students from Skyline High School in Ann Arbor in 2018 as part of the Legacies Project.

AACHM Oral History: Walter Blackwell

Sun, 07/21/2019 - 3:33pm

Walter Blackwell was born in 1930 in Petersburg, Virginia. He shares memories of growing up there as well as in Mount Vernon, New York before serving in the army during the Korean War. He worked for 30 years at the Ann Arbor VA hospital, where he enjoyed helping fellow veterans. After experiencing discrimination in housing and employment, Mr. Blackwell fought for civil rights in Ann Arbor as a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and mentored black children in his neighborhood.

AACHM Oral History: Henrietta Edwards

Sun, 07/21/2019 - 3:27pm

Henrietta Edwards was born in 1919 and grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma before moving to Ann Arbor in 1941. She and her husband worked at the Willow Run Bomber Plant during World War II, and owned two filling stations—one downtown at N Fourth Avenue and E Ann Street, and one on Highway 23. She celebrated her hundredth birthday with family, friends, and former coworkers and patients from St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, where she worked as a pediatric nurse for 32 years.