As the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) delays its I-375 project in an attempt to “get this right” for the community, a Detroit nonprofit is sharing the stories from people who lived in the area before the freeway destroyed it.
Black Bottom Archives, an organization dedicated to protecting, preserving and amplifying Black Detroit stories, just opened its latest exhibit, “From the Bottom, Up,” at the Detroit Historical Museum. The display shows some of the work the organization has been doing over the past two years for its Sankofa Community Research Project, an initiative highlighting the stories of past residents, descendants and community members about the harm inflicted by the destruction of the Black Bottom neighborhood and their hopes for the redevelopment project. The project is a partnership with the Detroit People’s Platform, with funding from the University of Michigan.
Attendees can check out the Black Bottom Street View, a series of panoramas that stitch together more than 2,000 archival photographs of the neighborhood, taken from 1949 to 1950. In addition, people will be able to hear oral histories from former residents and explore reconstructed digital maps of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley…