Exhibit Archive

Family Foundations: Four Stories of Black Washtenaw County Community Building, 1850 to 1950 features the migration stories of four historic Black families from Washtenaw County, MI: the Jewett and Asher-Aray families from Ann Arbor/Pittsfield Township, and the Kersey and Bass families from Ypsilanti.

Using photographs, an interactive map, and oral histories from these families’ descendants, this hybrid exhibit tells the stories of how these families laid the foundation for generations of Black community building to come. 

Here, you'll be able to access the images and documents belonging to each family. Many of them can be seen in the exhibit on the panels corresponding to each family.
Click on the family you wish to know more about!

The Four Families

  • A decorative image of a living room, containing furniture, photos on the mantel, boxes of archives, and a radio
    The Jewett Family
    The Jewett family has lived in Ann Arbor since 1865, when George Jewett moved from Bowling Green, Kentucky. He traveled by horseback and wagon and earned his living as a blacksmith.
  • A decorative image of a living room, containing furniture, photos on the mantel, boxes of archives, and a radio
    The Asher-Aray Family
    Asher and Cathrine Aray, free Blacks living in Pittsfield Township, were part of a system that helped self-emancipated people get to Canada in the years before the Civil War. Although slavery was not allowed in the North, slave catchers were still a constant threat, not just to the escapees, but to any person of color, as they often were going by vague descriptions that could include almost anyone of color. Thus Canada was the safest place to be since their laws stated that anyone living in Canada was free.
  • A decorative image of a living room, containing furniture, photos on the mantel, boxes of archives, and a radio
    The Bass Family
    Thomas Bass delivered practically all the Black babies born in Ypsilanti after opening his practice in 1943. During the same years, his wife, Louise Bass, was a well-respected mathematics teacher at Ypsilanti Junior High School. Both Thomas and Louise Bass were interested in public service and became involved in almost every group that served the Black community including the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the local NAACP chapter, and their church, the Brown Chapel AME. They had three children, Michael, Ann, and Leah.
  • A decorative image of a living room, containing furniture, photos on the mantel, boxes of archives, and a radio
    The Kersey Family
    John Kersey, great grandfather of Pastor Thermon Kersey Ill, came to Ypsilanti from Canada around 1881. Although the family was free, they had moved from Georgia to Indiana to escape from slave hunters who didn't always bother to differentiate free Blacks from escaped slaves. After the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was enacted, they were in even more danger, so the family; including the father, Ephriam Kersey, and his son, Elisha Kersey, moved to Canada. His descendants are not sure if he traveled as a free African American or used the Underground Railroad.
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