There Went The Neighborhood: The Closing of Jones School
As part of Ann Arbor 200, the Ann Arbor District Library and 7 Cylinders Studio (7CS) have produced a documentary film about the closing of Ann Arbor's Jones School. In 1965, the Board of Education closed the majority-Black school. Ann Arbor joined a nationwide trend of school desegregation during the Civil Rights Era. But for these young students, the loss of a neighborhood school foreshadowed changes to their close-knit community. Gentrification came to Ann Arbor on the heels of desegregation.
In the making of this film, 7CS filmmakers and AADL archivists interviewed over thirty former Jones students and Black community leaders. They shared memories of Jones School and "The Old Neighborhood"—the areas now known as Kerrytown and Water Hill. A filmed walking tour, studio interviews, and historical photos form the core of the film. Run time is approximately 40 minutes.
The AADL Archives has many additional materials to explore relating to these topics, including a history of Jones School and dozens of Ann Arbor News articles that appear in the film:
Improvements Underway at Summit Park, October 1961 Photographer: Duane Scheel
Year:
1961
Ann Arbor News, October 11, 1961
Caption:
NEW PARK SHELTER: Ann Arbor's newest park shelter should be completed in two to three weeks. It is the Summit St. shelter at the Summit playground in north-central Ann Arbor. The shelter, being built at a cost of $6,288, is in the north-west corner of the 200-130-foot playground that is bounded by Depot and E. Summit St., N. Fourth Ave. and the Peters Sausage Co. It will have toilets, a storage room and open space under a roof that can be enclosed during the winter to serve as a warming room of ice skaters.
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In A Communication To The Council
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Ann Arbor Will Present an Application
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Local Sausage Firm Buys Champion Hog
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AACHM Oral History: Audrey Monagan
Audrey Monagan was born in Ann Arbor in 1941, and grew up in a close-knit, predominantly black neighborhood on North Fifth Ave. She remembers attending Bethel AME Church with her grandparents, spending time at the Dunbar Community Center, and helping raise her younger siblings. She attended Jones School and Pioneer High School before working for General Motors, where she was an inspector for eighteen years. Mrs. Monagan has been married to her second husband, Philip, for 48 years.
Petition Filed Against Peters' Slaughter House
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City Attorney To Probe Plant Night Operation
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Ann Arbor Plant Slaughtering 150 Hogs Daily For Choice Market Hams, Lard
Fire Damages Sausage Firm
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