New Ways to See the Research

The Dunbar Center's third home after 1937 was 420 North Fourth Avenue.

1009 East Street not only provided a place to live for nearly 300 African American students during the early 20th century, it also became a center for the Black community in Ann Arbor more generally as the home of the Dunbar Community Center.

1102 East Ann Street, undated.

The house that stood at 1102 East Ann was one of the most important locations in the history of African American students at Michigan. From 1931 to 1945, “University House Number 2” was the primary residence for female Black students and a major social hub for all African Americans at the University.

The house at 144 Hill Street still stands today.

For nearly 60 years, this eight-bedroom house was one of the most prominent residences for the University’s African American students and for Black travelers visiting the city. So well known was the “Dickson House,” that it was included in the Negro Motorist Green Book—the only Ann Arbor home ever listed.

1136 Catherine Street, image taken from the Ellis Family Story.

Overseen by Roberta Ellis Britt, the house at 1136 Catherine Street was the successor to the one on 1102 East Ann as a home organized by the University for female African American students to live. For the decade between 1946 and 1956, more than 120 Black women, mostly graduate students, lived there.

Mosher-Jordan Hall, circa 1930.

Michigan opened the doors to its first dormitory, Mosher-Jordan Hall, in 1930. Even though at least two Black students applied, every student living there was white. It took years of activism by Black students, their parents, and alumni before Mosher-Jordan fully opened its doors to African Americans.

Oxford Housing complex, image courtesy of Wikimedia.

Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Kappa Alpha are the two oldest African American sororities at the University of Michigan. But neither had a house for their members to call their own until 1968, when they petitioned the University Housing Office for space in the Oxford Housing complex.

Second Baptist Church, image courtesy of the Ann Arbor District Library.

In 1890, Ann Arbor’s Black Baptist congregation began worshiping at 216 Beakes Street as Second Baptist Church. It provided a spiritual home to generations of Black students at Michigan, with its Sunday sermons listed in The Michigan Daily for decades, while the congregation also provided space for students to hold a wide variety of events.

The 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows 1102 Lincoln in an alley and denotes it as also serving as a stable.

A small number of African Americans who attended Michigan in the first half of the 20th century lived in houses located in predominantly white areas, such as 1102 Lincoln Avenue. A combination home and stable, it offered a residence for small numbers of Black students for two decades, and served as the first home for the Phi chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

The 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows a home at 210 Glen Avenue. It was demolished by U-M in 2008.

Since the mid-1800s, the small Ann Arbor area bound by Fuller Road, Catherine Street, and Glen Avenue was a nearly all-Black neighborhood. Its proximity to Michigan’s campus made it a popular area for African American students to live. One of the most popular locations was a three-bedroom home at 210 Glen Avenue, where, between 1906 and 1960, more than 300 students lived.