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Women's Suffrage in Michigan

A War Worth Waging - HFM by MikeRyu Today is International Womens Day and March is Women’s History Month in Michigan. While we aren't down with the idea that half the population's heritage can be relegated to a single month, it seems like…
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The coal mines of the Saginaw Valley

driver boy by j3net What lies beneath: A look at Saginaw's coal mining past from yesterday's Saginaw News says that the new "Mining for Prosperity: Coal in the Saginaw Valley" exhibit at the Castle Museum identifies 29 coal mines in Saginaw…
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Michigan's Rich African American Past

For years, February has been recognized as Black History Month. In nearly 250 years of living in Michigan, African Americans have made many important-and often overlooked–contributions to our state's past. One of the earliest records…
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Michigan History: Hollywood's First African-American Cowboy

Herbert Jeffries has acted, sung, even ridden--his way to the top of the entertaining world. In the 1930s, when white singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers carved out names for themselves, Jeffries decided there should be black…
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"I've Got a Home in Glory Land" Free Lecture and Book Signing - Feb. 8, 2009 Lansing, MI

In celebration of Black History Month, the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission is sponsoring a free, public lecture by Dr. Karolyn Smardz Frost, author of "I've Got a Home in Glory Land" - an account of the experiences of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn,…
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Black History Month: Michigan's Own James Earl Jones

He has one of the most recognizable voices in the entertainment business and it all began with a grapefruit and a dedicated teacher. James Earl Jones was born in Mississippi in 1931. His parents separated before his birth and his grandparents…
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Black History Month: Discover Detroit's Important Role

Mask by pinehurst19475 As we continue to celebrate Black History Month in Michigan, it wouldn't be fitting for us to unravel the past without a trip to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. The museum's…
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Black History Month: Fighting for Equality in Michigan

During the mid-nineteenth century, Michigan's African American population was quite small in number. In 1860, about 7,000 blacks lived in Michigan-less than 1 percent of the state's population. Although white Michiganians supported the destruction…
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Slavery in the Northwest Territory

As the Continental Congress discussed the Northwest Ordinance, a Massachusetts delegate suggested adding a provision banning slavery in the Northwest Territory, which included the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan.…
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The Brown Bomber Strikes

Hours before his second fight with Germany's Max Schmeling, Joe Louis was asked how he felt. "I'm scared," he said. "Scared?" asked his trainer. "Yes, I'm scared I might kill Schmeling tonight," Louis declared. Two years earlier, Schmeling…
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Freedom at Idlewild

Idlewild, wild and free Our jumpin' rhythms always calling me, Country air, sweet and strong, Packing up my suitcase So it won't be long, Sing and dance 'til sundown, It's such a rat race in Chicago town, Still I feel like a child, Cuz…
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Rosa Parks

On October 24, 2005, Rosa Parks, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement," died in Detroit. She had earned that appellation fifty years earlier when she refused to move from her seat on a segregated bus in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. It…