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African-American Daily Life
The history of people's daily lives can often be difficult to discover.
Exciting information about work, school, and family life often lies within
seemingly unexciting sources like census reports and City Council records.
Such documents can provide a composite portrait of employment and family
patterns, and neighborhood life. They enable historians to see personal
stories of daily life as part of larger patterns of change.
One of the best sources of information collected about African-Americans
living in Lowertown is the 1894 Michigan census. This census collected
information on everyone living in the state; it lists every person by name,
gives their address, age, and sex, states their occupation, and tells where
they and their parents were born. The census pages on Lowertown reveal
significant information about African-Americans in the neighborhood.
African-Americans made up more than 10 percent of Lowertown's population
(80 people out of 731 residents). Most lived with members of their
immediate family. Interestingly, none of Lowertown's African-American
residents lived east of Broadway where more than one-third of Lowertown's
population lived. African-Americans lived throughout western Lowertown,
especially on Wall St., Maiden Lane, and on Broadway.
African-Americans living in Lowertown came from several different regions.
Almost half were born in the Midwest, mostly in Michigan or Ohio. Another
one-quarter of the people emigrated from the South. Finally, one-quarter of
the African-American residents of Lowertown list Canada as their
birthplace. Older African-American residents listing Canada as their
birthplace almost all give a Southern state as their parents birthplaces.
These residents born in Canada may be the people, or descendants of people,
who escaped to Canada on the Underground Railroad, perhaps passing through
Ann Arbor on their journey.
African-Americans in Lowertown had various jobs. The census lists two farmers, a barber, and two stone masons; most, however, worked as day laborers, poorly paid and often underemployed. In addition, a relatively high number of African-American women worked outside the home. The census lists fourteen such women. Six worked as common/day laborers, five as cooks, two as domestics cleaning homes, and one woman took in washing. The high number of African-Americans working as common/day laborers and the high number of working women (in an era when this was discouraged by middle-class sensibilities) probably reflect a relatively low level of income for African-American households.
Understanding the social status of African-Americans in Lowertown can help us make sense of information that comes from other sources.
While the census helps us understand the lives of African-Americans more completely, it can not replace the voices of African-Americans who grew up and lived in Ann Arbor. Local historians like Lola Jones have preserved the memories of people who lived in Ann Arbor early in the twentieth century. The links in this next section will let you hear African-Americans describe the Ann Arbor they experienced. While African-Americans lived in several parts of the city, this did not prevent a cohesive African-American community from developing. Click here to listen to Lucille Porter describe the atmosphere of this community and to hear Martha Graham describe the role African-American churches played in forming this community
The census reveals that almost all African-American children attended school until they were fifteen. Lettie Wickliffe explains why many people did not complete high school. [link to Lwickliffe1.aud] Although schools in Ann Arbor were not segregated like many throughout the United States, Ann Arbor students almost never saw African-American teachers until after the 1940s. Click here to listen to what Martha Graham made of the lack of Black teachers when she was a student, or listen to Lettie Wickliffe explain why she did not teach in Ann Arbor
As these examples demonstrate, African-Americans in Ann Arbor were still second-class citizens in many ways. African-Americans even found it difficult to purchase a home in Ann Arbor. Click here to listen to Martha Graham describe how African-Americans got the money to purchase homes. Daily, African-Americans were reminded, in Martha Graham's words, that they were "different" and not welcome in certain places. Click here to listen to Lettie Wickliffe's experiences of such discrimination and her responses.
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Students On Site is a community
project of the Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan,
funded in part by the Michigan Humanities
Council and the U-M Office of the Vice-President For Research.
This website is a collaboration between the Arts of Citizenship Program
theCHICO
Project of the School of Information
and the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.
