Nina Williams

Nina Kersey Williams was born May 20, 1898 to James Henry and Mary Ann (Emmanuel) Kersey in Ypsilanti. The Kersey family came to Ypsilanti from Canada, where they joined relatives who had been here since the Civil War. Nina grew up in the home on First Avenue built by...

Marguerite Eaglin

Marguerite (Davis) Eaglin was born June 8, 1920, in Waxahatchie, Texas to Orville and Leona Davis. She moved to Michigan in 1940, hitchhiking on a whim with her husband, Simon Eaglin, eventually moving to Ypsilanti. Graduating from what is now Eastern Michigan...

Jessie Pryor Campbell

Jessie Pryor Campbell was born in 1930 to Porter and Beulah Pryor of Montgomery, Alabama who had come to Michigan during the Great Migration. Her father was a graduate of the Tuskegee Institute but could not get work as a veterinarian in Ypsilanti and had to work at...

Frederick Grady

Frederick Arnold Grady was born in Windsor, Ontario to Leason and Bessie (Cook) Grady. Frederick came to Ypsilanti to work at the U.S. Pressed Steel factory; a foundry which employed large numbers of African-American men located where the old Ford Motor plant now is....

Dr. Phillip Wells

Dr. Phillip G. Wells was born May 26, 1915 to Mary Wells outside of Wilmington, North Carolina and educated in local public schools. Phillip would enter the Hampton Institute, received the master’s degree as a Teacher of English. He received his doctorate from...