The Black Washtenaw County Team welcomes members of the public to visit “Family Foundations: Four Stories of Black Washtenaw County Community Building ,1850-1950.” Featuring the migration stories of four historic Black families from the area, the Jewett and Asher-Aray families from Ann Arbor and Pittsfield Township and the Kersey and Bass families from Ypsilanti, this interactive exhibit shares their photographs and oral histories to showcase how these families laid the foundation for generations of Black community building to come.
This will be a traveling exhibit premiering at the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County in October, Followed by the Ann Arbor District Library, and a site in Ypsilanti that is yet to be determined.
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The Black Washtenaw County: Histories of Racial Inequality, Segregation, and African-American Community Formation in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor is currently operating with a Dissemination Grant after their two year project concluded in August. Leading the dissemination phase are Joyce Hunter (CEO and President, African American Cultural & Historical Museum of Washtenaw County) Matthew Countryman (Assoc. Professor, History; American Culture), Jess Letaw (founder, Building Matters; co-founder, FutureRoot), and Yodit Mesfin Johnson (CEO and President, Nonprofit Enterprise at Work).