When one thinks of the Dust Bowl one normally envisions the swirling dust, the storms, the poverty, and the despair. A little discussed consequence of the Dust Bowl was the effect that it had on the wildlife. An ever decreasing food supply was driving the jack-rabbits out of their native habitats and forcing them onto the plains in rapidly increasing numbers. Once on the plains these rabbits began...
Brother Dave Moore was a leader in one of the many Unemployed Councils that were littered across Detroit. He gives a first-hand account of the Ford Hunger March of March 7th, 1932, a protest of unemployed workers in which four protestors were shot p¡by police, but also the frustration and injustice that led up to the march. Brother Moore lived in Leland Street off of Hastings Street...
In the first half of the twentieth century, with an influx in population and with large numbers of African Americans and other minorities making their way to the city, affordable housing became a salient issue in many American metropolises. The Brewster Housing Group was a housing project on the east side of Detroit. The Brewster Housing projects (constructed between 1935-1955), which would eventually...
Themes of belonging and community permeate the memories of people who grew up in Black Detroit's Eastside Neighborhoods during the twentieth century.
Dorothy Greenfield Hill grew up at St. Antoine and Warren Ave, just off Hastings Street. She recalls that she was a "great walker" because her home was centrally located to her community, including a "hop skip and a jump" to flower shops, family...
The Brewster Housing Project in Detroit, the country's first public housing project, was begun in 1935 as a result of a long campaign by African Americans demanding fair housing. This housing project was created during the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, which is significant because of his New Deal Policy which allocated money to go towards housing. However money was not always evenly...
The Brewster Projects were built in 1935 on the east side of Detroit in the “Black Bottom” neighborhood. What is lesser known is that a housing project named Parkside Projects, were simultaneously funded and built. As testimonies from past Brewster Project residents have recounted, their projects were a “paradise” of sorts. Deanna Neeley states, “And so it was a Godsend, it was like moving...
In 1935 the Civilian Conservation Corps began construction of a park on a portion of Chewacla Creek considered to be one of the most scenic areas in Auburn, Alabama. A project history printed during park construction states that “2 ½ miles of park road has been constructed, into which numerous rock culverts were built.” The document continues to describe construction of “an all masonry...
Of all the federal government’s attempts to deal with the Great Depression, few were as ambitious as the creation of the Resettlement Administration. The Resettlement Administration, established in 1935, was originally designed to move farmers to more productive agricultural areas. Once farmers were moved off of poor landscapes, the agency sent in conservation experts to reclaim and improve the...
A pair of “big league” Negro baseball teams, the Homestead Grays of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Newark, New Jersey, Dodgers played in Wilson, North Carolina, in 1935. The teams were members of the Negro National League. Buck Leonard, a Rocky Mount, N.C. native, was first baseman and captain of the Grays. Leonard stated, “this league is the only way for ‘us’ to play baseball. ...
“From rags to riches.
Strive and succeed.
A man may be down but he’s never out.”[1]
-John Kieran
Max Baer taunted his opponent. A barrage of “boos” rained down from the audience, voicing their antipathy and intolerance for Baer’s lack of sportsmanship and detachment from the struggles of ordinary Americans. In response to the jeering onlookers, Baer began...