Grant Awarded: April 2005

Type of Grant: Humanities Project Grant

Sponsor: The Westsiders

Contact: Suesetta McCree, 313-863-8968, www.westsiders@aol.com

Award: $15,000

The Westsiders (Detroit) will produce “The Way It Was,” which will record and publish the oral histories of those who lived on the west side of Detroit from the 1920s to the 1950s. In collaboration with the Reuther Library of Wayne State University and the Hannan Foundation, the Westsiders will interview 12 longtime residents of the West Grand Boulevard neighborhood of Detroit. The focus will be African Americans between the ages of 65 and 95 who became successful members of society.

The histories will be linked via the Internet and also be shared in a series of community symposia in August 2005, January 2006, and March 2006. Videotapes and publications from the oral histories will be distributed to Detroit Cable television, neghborhood churches, Detroit Public schools, Detroit libraries, and neighborhood institutions.