Black Scroll Network History & Tours

06/19/2025

06/18/2025

182 Years Ago - On June 17, 1833 - An uprising organized to free a Black couple from slavecatchers took place in Detroit.

It will be one of the most important events in Detroit’s Black History.

In 1831, Thornton Blackburn, enslaved in Kentucky, was in love with a beautiful Black woman, who was also enslaved. When he discovered that she was about to be sold into New Orleans as a “fancy woman” - sexual slavery - they both escaped, and they came to Detroit.

2 years later, in 1833, slave-catchers and the Wayne County Sheriff, John Wilson, and his deputy captured Thornton & Rutha, and planned to return them to slavery in Kentucky.

A group of Black Detroiters met at the home of prominent Black Detroiter, Benjamin Willoughby, to plan how to free Thornton & Rutha Blackburn from the sheriff and slave-catchers.

On June 16th, 2 Black women, Caroline French and Tabitha Lightfoot visited Rutha Blackburn, and due to their efforts, Rutha was freed and hundreds of Black people organized a rebellion to free Thornton.

Caroline French, who visited Rutha Blackburn in jail, switched clothes with her in the jail cell, and the sheriff was unaware when Rutha, who would change her name to “Lucie,” walked out wearing the clothes of Caroline French.

On June 17th, hundreds of Black people and some white abolitionists gathered at the jail site in an uprising that led to the death of Sheriff Wilson, and the freedom of Thornton Blackburn.
After the uprising, Thornton & Lucie Blackburn, who were whisked away to Canada, would live in Amherstburg for a while and then eventually moved to Toronto, Ontario where they started the first taxicab company there. They also co-founded a church and owned 6 houses, 5 of which were used as temporary refugee homes for other fugitives from slavery.

Meanwhile in Detroit, the uprising that caused the death of the sheriff, also caused the white community in Detroit to rise up in uproar.

06/02/2025

59 years ago - in June, 1966 - the March Against Fear took place. The March - from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi - was originally a solo endeavor led by James Meredith, the 1st Black person to attend the The University of Mississippi.

When Meredith was shot by a white sniper on the 2nd day of the march, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Conference are joined by SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP in Mississippi to continue the march started by James Meredith.

The NAACP, led by Roy Wilkins, leaves the march when the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed civil rights group, begins providing protection to the marchers. Dr. King and SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael stay.

Willie Mukasa Ricks, a SNCC field secretary, has been giving “Black Power” speeches in the towns near the march.

For the past few months, Dr. King had been a part of the movement in Chicago against poverty, school segregation, and housing discrimination. On Wednesday, June 15, 1966, King leaves the March Against Fear temporarily, and flies to Chicago for a housing rally.

On Thursday, June 16, 1966, while King is away, Stokely Carmichael gives a major Black Power speech at the march. Leaders of the NAACP, and The National Urban League, and other Black leaders denounce Carmichael and “Black Power.” Dr. King disagrees with the term, but agrees with the idea that Black people need more power over their own communities.

On Sunday, June 19, 1966, Dr. King comes to Detroit to Cobo Hall to lead a rally and program in support of the labor movement’s coalition with civil rights. On June 30, 1966, there were protests in around 10 cities across the nation for welfare rights.

King, is in close contact with some of the national organizers for welfare rights, and delivers a speech at Soldier Field on July 10, 1966, and then leads a march to Chicago’s City Hall, where he posts a list of demands on the door of the building.

05/05/2025

In 1941, Thomas “Rooster” Hammond, owner of the Frog Club; Irving Roane, owner of the Arcade Barbershop, and the Red Rooster Café; and Walter Norwood, owner of the Norwood Hotel and the Club Plantation, financially backed John White to buy what became the Hotel Gotham in 1943.

John White, was a bookkeeper for Hammond and Roane, who along with Norwood, were major numbers/policy men in Detroit.

John White was able to buy the hotel with less pushback, because White looked white.

Eventually, Norwood would be forced out of this partnership due to his testifying on the top numbers men in Black Detroit – John Roxborough and Everett Watson.

John White would then use his profits to buy Hammond out too.

In 1949, he would buy Roane out as well, and own the hotel outright. Black professionals, celebrities, middle and wealthy African Americans would stay at the Gotham.

Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Sammy Davis Jr., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others stayed at the Gotham.

However, as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley were being destroyed in the 1950s and 60s, the venues that were bringing so many wealthy and famous Black people to Detroit were diminishing. This was hurting the businesses in the Sugar Hill District.

On top of that, white-owned hotels began to open their doors to successful African Americans.

And the medical center was expanding, buying land and property from the Black-owned businesses near the Gotham.

Together, these factors devastated the remaining Black business districts in Detroit.

The Gotham closed in 1962.

But it operated semi-secretly as a gambling club.
It was raided by federal, state and city law enforcement in 1963.

While John White was waiting for trial, he died of a heart attack.

The hotel was destroyed for the expansion of the Detroit Medical Center in 1963.

It’s over 60 years later, and the medical center has never expanded to that vacant lot.

Urban Renewal.

05/03/2025

Along with Paradise Valley & Black Bottom, Motown owes it existence and success to another neighborhood in Detroit - 12th-Dexter-Linwood. Before it was named Motown, Berry Gordy Jr. named his record company, Tamla Records. And there is no Tamla Records or Motown without the 12th-Dexter-Linwood neighborhood.

Let me explain.

Marv Johnson was a local singer and was working at the Prince Adams Record Mart on 12th and Hazelwood, almost across the street from where the Joseph Walker Williams Recreation Center sits today. After meeting Berry Gordy Jr. and his then-wife Raynoma Liles Gordy, Marv Johnson auditioned for the couple in the backroom of the record store.

Marv Johnson was the singer on the 1st Tamla Records single, “Come to Me,” in 1959. Berry Gordy Jr. pressed the records in the back of a 2-family flat at 1719 Gladstone, near 12th street just a couple of blocks away from the Joseph Walker Williams Center, and down the street from Hutchins Middle School.

Also a block away and behind the Williams Recreation Center was 2040 Blaine, which was the studio of the Rayber Music Writing Company, which was the songwriting company founded by Berry Gordy Jr. and his 2nd wife Raynoma Liles. The Rayber Voices rehearsed and recorded in the basement there, and the group included a legendary singer-songwriter named Brian Holland, who would become 1/3rd of the Motown songwriting powerhouse group – Holland Dozier Holland

The whole 12th-Dexter-Linwood neighborhood and its residents – Johnnie Mae Matthews (Blaine & Linwood), Marv Johnson (Prince Adams Record Mart-12th & Hazelwood), Otis Williams (W. Philadelphia btw Byron & Hamilton), Melvin Franklin (Clairmount & Hamilton), the Rayber Music Writing Co.(Blaine near 14th), Joe’s Records (12th & Pingree), and so many others helped to bring Berry Gordy Jr’s vision to life.

There is no Motown without Tamla, and there is no Tamla without the 12th-Dexter-Linwood community.

04/27/2025

RIP to a legend in Black Education. I have every one of his books. I’ve known him for decades. I first met him when I introduced him at a lecture in Haworth College of Business at Western Michigan University for the Young Black Males Support Network.

I’ve introduced him to numerous audiences in college, at conferences, and at teacher training seminars.

His work has been a major influence on my work, especially in the classroom. The book pictured here is my favorite book from him.

He made a significant, a powerful, a monumental contribution to Black education and educators.

Aṣẹ!

04/27/2025

Born in 1930 Louisiana, Mable John moved to Detroit with her family at the age of 11, as part of the Great Migration. Her father found a job at an auto factory, which was switching production to defense products for the US military.

The family lived in the Dequindre Housing Projects on Dequindre near 6 Mile. Part of that area is now occupied by Second Ebenezer Baptist Church.

She attended Cleveland Middle School, and graduated from Pershing High School.

And she could SING.

She was still singing in her Pentecostal church choir, when her younger brother - Little Willie John - became a hit singer. When she began accompanying him on the road, she was kicked out of the choir and then the church, due to his and her singing, ‘the devil’s music.”

Before and after graduating from high school, she worked at Friendship Mutual Insurance Agency, an insurance and real estate company founded and owned by Bertha Fuller Gordy.

Bertha Gordy had 8 children, including a son named Berry Gordy Jr..

Mable John attended Lewis College of Business, the 1st HBCU in the city of Detroit, and Bertha Gordy, aware of Mable’s singing ability, informed Mable John that her son, Berry Gordy Jr., was a songwriter that may be able to write songs for her.

Berry, along with being a songwriter, began playing piano for Mable John as she performed in local venues. In 1959, as her manager, he booked her at the Flame Show Bar, where she opened for legendary jazz vocalist, Billie Holiday, at her last concert in Detroit, just 2 weeks before she died.

While Berry Gordy Jr. was managing her and booking her performances, Mable John was working as a chauffeur for him, because he didn’t know how to drive. When Gordy founded Motown Records, Mable John became the 1st female solo artist to sign with the label.

Claudette Robinson was the 1st woman to join Motown, but she signed as a member of The Miracles.

Mable John, a blues singer, would not be able to make chart-topping hits with Motown Records, which by the mid-60s, was mainly a R&B/Pop crossover music label. She died in 2022 at the age of 91.

04/26/2025

Armen Boladian, a Detroit music producer founded Westbound Records in Detroit in 1968. He signed Funkadelic to the label in 1970. After seeing the attraction of Funk Music, Boladian looked for more groups with the Funk sound. And he found it, in Dayton, OH.

A group called the Ohio Untouchables, after some lineup changes became the Ohio Players. After an unsuccessful 1969 debut album on Capitol Records, they signed with Boladian and Westbound Records in 1971, joining the label and stable that Funkadelic was already at.

(George Clinton & Armen Boladian have been at odds for decades. Last month, March 2025, Clinton and his attorney Ben Crump, filed a $10 million lawsuit, against Boladian and Westbound Records over royalties, copyright issues and music ownership.)

The Ohio Players recorded “Pain” in 1971, which became a R&B top 40 hit on the Billboard chart. They recorded 3 albums in Detroit on Westbound Records at the same time that Funkadelic was recording at the same label.

It would be in Detroit - at Westbound Records - that the Ohio Players would adopt the sexy woman album covers.

So yes, Dayton-Cincinnati are central to Funk music. But without Detroit, Funk music would never be what it became.

The 1971 Ohio Players lineup consisted of:

Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner - guitar & vocals
Walter “Junie” Morrison - keyboards & vocals
Ralph “Pee Wee” Middlebrooks - trombone & vocals
Clarence Satchell (aka ‘Andrew Noland’) - saxophone & vocals
Bruce Napier - trumpet and vocals
Marvin Pierce - flugelhorn & vocals
Gregory Webster - drums
Marshall “Rock” Jones - bass guitar
Dale Allen - vocals

04/25/2025

105 Years Ago - On April 25th, 1920 - Esther Gordy Edwards was born in Georgia.

At the age of 2, her parents moved to Detroit, where she grew up with her 7 siblings. She attended and graduated from Cass Tech., and then went to & graduated from Howard University.

Esther, Fuller & George Gordy - started the Gordy Printing Co. Esther led the management of the Printing Co..

Esther Gordy Edwards also founded the Ber-Berry Co-Op - a family savings account that family members contributed to and could receive business loans from. Without the Ber-Berry Co-Op, some of the Gordy businesses, Including the most famous one, would not exist.

Businesses started by the family were:

The photo concession at the Flame Show Bar, owned by sisters Anna & Gwen Gordy;

The 3D Record Mart, a jazz record store owned by brother Berry Gordy Jr.;

Anna Records; owned by Anna Gordy, Gwen Gordy and Rocquel Billy Davis;

& Tri-Phi Records, owned by Gwen Gordy & Harvey Fuqua.

And of course, Motown Records, founded by Berry Gordy Jr..

Berry Gordy Jr. took out a $800 loan from the Ber-Berry Co-Op to start Motown.

Esther Gordy Edwards founded The Motortown R***e in 1962. Later that year, she began negotiating with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to record his speeches. That deal would be finalized in June, 1963 by Berry Gordy Jr..

After founding the Motown R***e, Esther Gordy Edwards, Berry Gordy Jr.’s older sister, became the VP at Motown.

And in 1985, she founded the Motown Museum.