mac2019detroit

The Lower eastside of Detroit, home to Eastern Market, Lafayette Park, and the Islandview neighborhood is one of the most historically significant neighborhoods in Detroit's history. The history includes the Indigenous Anishinaabe people who lived there before Europeans arrived in Detroit. It also is important when the French arrive in 1701. The French farmers would name the area "Fond Noir" - Black Bottom. But its importance for African Americans in Detroit is what this neighborhood is most known for. This part of Detroit was the neighborhood with the most concentrated population of African Americans from the 1800s to the 1950s.

Slated to receive a Michigan Historical Marker this year, and the subject of books, research projects and the Black Bottom Street View project by Emily Kutil, Black Bottom has been a major topic of interest in the past few years! Before Greektown, Corktown, and Poletown, this was the home of many European ethnic groups - Irish, Jewish, German, Italians, Polish, and of course, African Americans.
Please join historian, educator and Tour Leader of Black Scroll Network History and Tours, Jamon Jordan on a tour of what was Black Bottom, the historic African American neighborhood that was destroyed by federal, state, and local policymakers.

We will also visit the site of Paradise Valley, the African American business and entertainment district that was destroyed by the building of the I-375 & I-75 freeway.

The tour will include a visit to historic homesites, schools, houses of worship and businesses.

Meet LAC representative in the hotel lobby, will depart at 8:45 am.