Black Scroll Network History & Tours

02/27/2025

It’s Black History Month!
As the Official Historian of the City of Detroit, I’m going to present a Black Historic Site in Detroit Every Day Of This Month!

Site #22
The Detroit Homes of Smokey Robinson!

William “Smokey” Robinson was born in Detroit.

His parents divorced when he was 3, and his mother passed away when he was 10 years old. He lived with his eldest sister and her husband and their 10 children in the 2 family flat shown below.

This 2 family flat on Belmont had 2 addresses. One of them, the one on the left - 581 Belmont - was the home that Motown legend Smokey Robinson grew up in.

He lived down the street from Diana Ross until her family moved away when she was about 10 years old, and around the corner from Aretha Franklin who lived in that neighborhood from the age of 4-12 years old.

He attended Northern High School where he formed a doo-wop singing group known as the Five Chimes. When he graduated from Northern, he had a 3.8 GPA, was a starter on the football team, was the lead singer in the school glee club, and won Most Popular, Most Likely To Succeed and Best Singer.

The Five Chimes became the Matadors.
When they signed with Motown Records, they became The Miracles.

In 1959, Smokey Robinson and Claudette Robinson - nee’ Rogers, both of The Miracles, married and moved into Apt 101 at 2750 Sturtevant - the large beige apt building shown below.

In 1962, they moved into this home at 19357 Santa Barbara in the Bagley neighborhood on Detroit’s west side. You can see them moving in, and another photo of the house as it looks today.

02/27/2025

It’s Black History Month!

As the Official Historian of the City of Detroit, I’m going to present a Black Historic Site in Detroit Every Day Of This Month!

Site #21
Your Heritage House

Born in 1914, Josephine Harreld grew up in Atlanta, GA in an arts and musical family - her father was an esteemed violinist and the director of the Morehouse College Glee Club, and her mother was a poet.

She became a concert pianist while still a young girl, and attended and graduated from Spelman College, The Juilliard School, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and the Mozart Academy in Austria.

William Thomas Love was a medical doctor in Detroit, who worked at a number of the Black hospitals in the city. In 1934, he became the 1st African American appointed as a medical examiner for Wayne County,.

In 1940, Dr. Love and Josephine Herrald met at Second Baptist Church of Detroit. In 1941, the couple got married at the Detroit Association of Women’s Clubs, Inc. on E. Ferry Street.

In 1969, Josephine Love founded Your Heritage House as an arts studio and museum. In 1971, Your Heritage House moved to a Victorian mansion at 110 E. Ferry Street.

The arts institution held classes on visual art - painting, sculpting, ceramics; music - both vocal and instrumental; photography,; puppetry; doll-making; poetry; dance; drama; creative writing and more.

Your Heritage closed in the late 1990s.

Josephine Harreld Love passed away in 2003.

02/27/2025

02/27/2025

It’s Black History Month!

As the Official Historian of the City of Detroit, I’m going to present a Black Historic Site in Detroit Every Day Of This Month!

Site #18

Fritz Funeral Home

In 1927, Moses Fritz - an African American mortician - began working at the Franklin Funeral Home, owned by Samuel Franklin.
A decade later, he started his own funeral home business on Garfield St. in the Sugar Hill neighborhood - the present day area of the Detroit Medical Center.

In 1948, Moses Fritz purchased his former workplace on Ferry St., not from Franklin Funeral Home, but from the flamboyant messianic preacher in Detroit - Prophet Jones.

This block was an all-white area until Dr. Rosa Slade-Gragg bought the William Lennane House on the east end of the block for the Detroit Association of Women’s Clubs, Inc. in 1941.

Moses Fritz was succeeded as the head of the business by his son, James Fritz. His granddaughter, Christina Fritz went into the family business, until Fritz Funeral Home closed in 2006. She later became a funeral director at James H. Cole Home for Funerals.

*Pictured here:

1.) An ad for Fritz Funeral Home - Moses Fritz is at left.
2.) An ad for Fritz Funeral Home - Moses Fritz is at right.
3.) The former Fritz Funeral Home on Ferry St.
4.) James Fritz, son and successor of Moses Fritz.
5.) Christina Fritz, funeral director & daughter of James Fritz, and granddaughter of Moses Fritz.

02/27/2025

It’s Black History Month!

As the Official Historian of the City of Detroit, I’m going to present a Black Historic Site in Detroit Every Day Of This Month!

Site #12

Booker T. Washington Business Association

The Booker T. Washington Business Association was the earliest Black Chamber of Commerce in the City of Detroit.

Founded in 1930 as the Booker T. Washington Trade Association, by Rev. William Peck of Bethel AME Church - Detroit, MI and others, the organization was made up of Black businessmen and its main goal was to promote the growth of Black-owned businesses in Detroit.

Their offices were originally located at 571 Frederick St - right next to the former Bethel AME Church. They would later move to E. Grand Blvd.

Many of the important businessmen of the Paradise Valley era and beyond were members of the BTWBA.

People like Mack Ivey - owner of the B&C Club in Paradise Valley
Lorenzo Malloy, co-owner of Malloy’s Shoe Service Shops at Brewster Homes and North End
Vollington Bristol, co-owner of Bristol & Bristol Funeral Home in Black Bottom
& Berry Gordy Sr., co-owner of the Booker T. Washington Grocery Store on the corner of Theodore and St. Antoine.

Today, the Booker T. Washington Business Association has merged with the Detroit Black Chamber of Commerce and the Detroit Chapter of The National Business League (formerly, the National Negro Business League) to form the Detroit United Front.

02/27/2025

It’s Black History Month!

As the Official Historian of the City of Detroit, I’m going to present a Black Historic Site in Detroit Every Day Of This Month!

There’s 2 sites for Day #8 - both Black-owned and operated hospitals.

Dunbar Hospital

Since most chapters of the American Medical Association barred Black physicians from membership, African American doctors established their own medical organization, the National Medical Association in 1895. The Allied Medical Society was the Detroit chapter of the NMA. The Northcrosses and their nephew, Remus Robinson were early members.

Led by Dr. James Ames, the Allied Medical Society established the first Black non-profit hospital in Detroit, Dunbar Hospital in 1918, at the corner of Frederick and St. Antoine streets. The hospital’s physicians included prominent Detroit doctors like Robert Greenidge, Albert Cleage Sr., Lloyd Bailer and Herbert Sims.

The hospital had 27-beds and an operating room managed by Dr. Alexander Turner, the first African American surgeon in Detroit, who would join Mercy’s Remus Robinson in leading the integration of Grace Hospital, which later merged with the Jewish-founded Sinai Hospital and became Sinai-Grace.

In 1924, the hospital moved to a larger site and was renamed Parkside Hospital. In 1928, this house was sold to Charles Diggs Sr., the successful owner of a string of funeral homes in Detroit. Diggs Sr. would become a state representative. His son, Charles Diggs Jr., would live his early years in this home, and would become the 1st African American from Detroit to serve in the US House of Representatives.

In the 1970s, the building was repurchased by the Detroit Medical Association, the Black physicians’ organization, and became a Black medical history museum.

By the 1990s, the museum was no longer operating.
The building has been closed ever since.

02/27/2025

It’s Black History Month!

As Detroit’s Official Historian, I’m going to present a Black Historic Site in Detroit Every Day Of This Month!

There’s 4 sites for Day #4 - all associated with the 1967 Rebellion.

The Algiers Motel

When the 1967 Rebellion ended, ends, 43 people were dead, nearly 1200 wounded, over 7,000 arrested and about 400 buildings were destroyed.

Almost all of those killed were killed by people in uniform - Officers from the Detroit Police Department, the Michigan State Police, and soldiers from the Michigan National Guard.

That includes Tanya Lynn Blanding, a 4-year old killed by .50 caliber bullets when the National Guard fired up the apartment building at 1756 Euclid at the corner of 12th & Euclid around midnight on July 26th.

And of course, what happened right here at The Algiers Motel, when police & National Guard raided the Annex Building of the Algiers Motel, which was a large manor house located at 50 Virginia Park.

Police officers tortured the people inside of the building.

And killed Carl Cooper, 17 years old…
Fred Temple, 18 years old.
And Auburey Pollard, 19 years old.

The officers, David Senak, Ronald August and Robert Paille will never serve a day in prison for what happened here.

But the Citywide Citizens’ Action Committee will hold a People’s Tribunal at the Shrine of the Black Madonna that will find the officers guilty.

And the families of Carl Cooper, Fred Temple and Auburey Pollard will fight for justice in the same ways that the families of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in more recent history.

02/27/2025

It’s Black History Month!

As Detroit’s Official Historian, I’m going to present a Black Historic Site in Detroit Every Day Of This Month!

There’s 5 sites for Day #3 - all associated with Black abolitionists and Underground Railroad agents.

The William & Julia Lambert Homesite

William Lambert was born in New Jersey in 1817. He moved to Detroit as a teenager.

Julia Willoughby grew up in Detroit in an abolitionist family.

These two would marry and were leaders of the Underground Railroad in Detroit.

They also were successful in business.

The home of the Lamberts was located at 497 Larned.
This would have been the historic neighborhood of Black Bottom.
Today, this is the site of the Martin Luther King Jr. Homes.

The Lamberts owned a number of businesses.
The first one at Griswold and Fort Street.
Then another business on Brush and Larned.

They then moved the business – tailoring, clothes repair, tanning, and cleaning - to 273 Jefferson.

That site is now occupied by the Coleman A Young Municipal Center.

At the time of William Lambert’s death, he owned property worth $75,000.

That’s over $2 million in today’s dollars.

They are also co-founders, along with Rev. William Monroe, of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church (now, St. Matthew’s & St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church Detroit) - the 3rd oldest Black church in Detroit.

The historic marker that was located at the former homesite was stolen in 2016.

02/27/2025

It’s Black History Month!

As Detroit’s Official Historian, I’m going to present a Black Historic Site in Detroit Every Day Of This Month!

There’s 5 sites for Day #3 - all associated with Black abolitionists and Underground Railroad agents.

The Homesite of George DeBaptiste

Here at Larned & Beaubien is the home of George DeBaptiste.

George DeBaptiste was one of the greatest abolitionist leaders of Detroit’s Underground Railroad. DeBaptiste was a successful Black businessman born free in Virginia, and when he moved to Detroit, he was one of the founders of the Colored Vigilant Committee, and the more secret African-American Mysteries, Order of the Men of Oppression - 2 organizations whose mission was to assist Black people in obtaining freedom.

DeBaptiste was a “stockholder,” a “stationmaster,” and a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, and owned a steamboat - the T. Whitney - that ferried many people from Detroit to freedom in Canada.

02/27/2025

It’s Black History Month!

As Detroit’s Official Historian, I’m going to present a Black Historic Site in Detroit Every Day Of This Month!

There’s 5 sites for Day #3 - all associated with Black abolitionists and Underground Railroad agents.

Gateway To Freedom - International Memorial To The Underground Railroad

On October 20, 2001, The Gateway to Freedom- was unveiled at the Detroit riverfront.

And it was an international monument because its sister sculpture – the Tower of Freedom, was unveiled across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario, in Canada.

Both monuments were sculpted by Ed Dwight, a celebrated sculptor who, prior to sculpting, was an Air Force pilot who was the first African American trained to be a NASA astronaut.

Because of the Gateway to Freedom Monument, many Detroiters and Detroit visitors have learned about Detroit’s role in the abolitionist movement, especially the Underground Railroad.

02/22/2025

60 Years Ago - On February 21, 1965 - Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.

One week prior, at about 2am on February 14, 1965 - Black nationalist leader Malcolm X’s home in East Elmhurst, Queens, was firebombed.

At the same time, he was scheduled to speak in Detroit that evening and came into Detroit on a morning flight.

He was going to speak in downtown Detroit at Ford Auditorium. Ford Auditorium was located next to Hart Plaza, and was the site of the First Annual Dignity Projection and Scholarship Award Ceremony, that was convened by Pastor Albert B. Cleage, Jr., as well as brothers Milton Henry & Richard Henry.

The keynote speaker at the event was Malcolm X.

When he arrives in Detroit, he is coughing profusely after being outside in the February cold all morning waiting for police and fire to put the fire out, and conduct their investigation of the arson.

When he arrives in Detroit, he stays in the Statler-Hilton Hotel near Grand Circus Park. Pastor Cleage’s brother-in-law, Dr. Eddie Warren Evans, gives Malcolm a sedative to help him sleep off some of his symptoms. Dr. Evans, who is married to Pastor Cleage’s sister, Gladys Cleage (Evans), is the father of former Wayne County Sheriff, Detroit Police Chief, and NOW-Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans.

In fact, the “C” in Warren C Evans’ name is “Cleage.”

The Afro-American Broadcasting Corp., which is the recording company of Milton & Richard Henry, records the speech, and titles it, “The Last Message,” after Malcolm X is assassinated a week later in the Audubon Ballroom.

Pastor Cleage, would go on to transform his congregation - Central United Church of Christ - to the Shrines of the Black Madonna of the Pan-African Orthodox Christian Church, and would define his theological position as Black Christian Nationalism in 1967.

The Henry brothers - Milton & Richard - would go on to become founders of the Provisional Government - Republic of New Afrika in 1968. Malcolm is here at the airport with Milton Henry in the photo.