ljones's blog

Judge Damon J. Keith Passes at 96 Years of Age

(41859) Judge Damon J. Keith, Portrait

The Reuther Library mourns the passing of Judge Damon Jerome Keith who made his transition April 28, 2019. A Detroit native and the grandson of enslaved Africans, Judge Keith lived during a number of pivotal moments in American and world history. Forced to endure and negotiate the confines of a world that too often worked against the interests and advancement of African Americans, he succeeded in life while making enduring contributions to its betterment.  read more »

The Michigan Black History Bibliography Index: An Invaluable Resource

(304) African Americans; UAW organizing, Detroit, Michigan

In the mid 1970s, the Walter Reuther Library produced an invaluable source of information for numerous researchers that have walked through its doors - the Michigan Black History Bibliography Index. The index contains a wealth of information that does not exist anywhere else, providing researchers with connections to unique and often obscure sources. With this blog, a wider audience will become aware of its existence and value. The index is a four-drawer card file identifying sources that are key to understanding Black history in Michigan, and its hundreds of bibliographic references span from the 19th Century until the mid 1970s.  read more »

Wayne Alumna Viola Gregg Liuzzo Honored for Her Work as a Civil Rights Activist

(24853) Mrs. Viola Liuzzo, Civil Rights Activist, 1963

This spring 2015, Wayne State University will be honoring one of its own whose contribution to humanity exemplifies the best in humanity. In March 1965 Viola Gregg Liuzzo traveled to Selma, Alabama in response to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s request of support for a voter registration drive in that state. On March 25, after the last of three marches that month, Liuzzo was shot and murdered on Highway 80 outside of Selma, Alabama while assisting with the transportation of marchers on the way home from the protest.  read more »

General Gordon Baker, Jr.: A Detroit Revolutionary to the Core

There is a select group of people who place the needs of others above their own, do so against formidable forces and at great risk to their own welfare and well-being. They take these risks never knowing exactly how they will fare, but recognizing that their convictions demand that they cannot do otherwise. General Gordon Baker, Jr., a Detroit revolutionary, was among this select group of people. On May 24, 2014, a packed audience at Dearborn, Michigan’s UAW Local 600 memorialized his life that ended six days before. It was there that attendees gave tribute to a man whose impact did not pass with his death.  read more »

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