African-American History

The heat waves and other challenges that test the way neighbors show up for each other. Also, the city of Muskegon rethinks its waterfront for Great Lakes Cruisers. Plus, a DIY comic book series telling stories of queer black icons. And we take a trip to the Motown Museum.

There’s a new home for the African American Historical and Cultural Museum of Washtenaw County. Founded in 1993 as a "museum without walls," the new permanent headquarters is the Byrd Center — a historic farmhouse property in Ann Arbor.

How the Board of Education is reacting to restructuring of the Michigan Department of Education, the history of one of the first African Americans to settle in the Lansing area and an artifact from his life, and a series on how opiate settlement money is being spent across Michigan.

Wayne State scholar and author Kidada Williams explores the oft-overlooked era of American Reconstruction.

Plowshares Theatre Company returns to the stage with the world premier of Hastings Street, a musical "set on the cusp of change in Detroit." We speak with the writer and composer of the musical, and we hear from the director of Plowshares about the company's return to in-person theatre.

For some Black people in the 19th and 20th centuries, "passing" meant living part or all of your life as non-Black. Recent creative works — Lovecraft Country, Passing, and The Vanishing Half — have brought the idea of passing back to the forefront. This month on Stateside, we discuss the life of a Detroiter who passed as white in the '40s and return to historical, pop culture references to passing in America.

In 1914, Elsie Roxborough was born into a wealthy, Black family in Detroit. But when she died in 1949, her death certificate listed her as white. Her life was rich, curious and at times, troubled, all while attempting a sort of high-wire-act of living multiple lives, between cities and names and races.

Cultural references to passing have been around for a long time. But recent works like the Rebecca Hall’s film adaptation of Nella Larsen’s book, Passing, have brought it back to the forefront. Today, we talk about the contexts that have caused this narrative to recur across the centuries.

Walter F. Edwards of Wayne State University grew up speaking Guyanese Creole, which shaped his approach to linguistics. He shares how Afro-Caribbean languages have spread to African American Vernacular English and what this looks like for Black Detroiters.

"What up doe?" If you’ve heard the term before, you probably know it as a greeting or maybe even a question. But for many Black Detroiters, the phrase is a piece of home. Today, we'll talk about the history of "what up doe" and what it means to its originators.