Albion, Michigan, a small town, was founded in the 1830s.  Its location at the confluence of the north and south forks of the Kalamazoo River attracted early settlers because the water flow at the site could power grist and lumber mills.  Mills were a defining economic presence for Albion during its pioneer phase.  After the Civil War, heavy industry was initiated and by 1900, Albion had become an industrial city.  The Albion Malleable Iron Company was considered the “mother factory,” and it attracted and recruited immigrant workers who entered America through Ellis Island.  When the Great War broke out in Europe in 1914, immigration from Europe was curtailed.  In need of workers, the Albion Malleable Iron Company went south to Pensacola, Florida.  The company recruited 64 men who traveled by train to Albion in November of 1916.  Their families soon joined them.  Albion had become a host of the fabled Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North.  In subsequent years, more African Americans made the journey from the South to Albion. 

This chapter of Albion’s history has been highlighted through historical displays in Holland Park, the location of the West Ward School which was demolished in 1958, and through an oral history project that included 20 interviews of former West Ward students.   Following West Ward’s closure, a couple of the Black teachers were blended into the Albion Public School system, but no effort was made to hire additional African American teachers for Albion Public Schools.  The West Ward School story reminds us that Black Teachers Matter. 

Fast forward to the late 1960s.  By this time, Albion’s African Americans made up approximately 25% of the city’s population of 12,000.  Excepting Mildred Biggs, who had taught for years at West Ward, there were no African American teachers in the Albion Public School system.  Racial tensions erupted at Albion High School.  The absence of Black teachers was an issue.  Albion School administrators came up with a plan.  Albion would look to the South to the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).  Recruiting trips were made and a cohort of Black teachers were recruited to Albion from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Georgia, from Grambling University, Fort Valley University, and Arkansas A & M.  Beginning in the early 1970a, Mae Ola Dunklin, Eddie Williams, Barbara Davis, Willie Davis, Hazel Lias, Ray Lias, Vivian Davis, Sara Truss, Dorothy Perkins, Richard Powell, and Sylvia Powell were among the African American teachers that were recruited to Albion from the South.  In that same era, the Albion Public Schools also hired a few Albion natives, grandsons and granddaughters of the first and second wave of the Great Migration.  These included Robert Wall, Ron Gant, Tonya Lee, and Lenn Reid. From 1970 until 2000, Albion Public Schools’ teaching staff included a significant number of Black teachers.  In the early 21^st Century, that generation of African American Albion Public School teachers retired.  They were not replaced by Black teachers.  Albion’s teaching staff again resembled the pre-1918 all-white faculty.  Meanwhile, Albion’s school system was facing a variety of challenges.  Albion, a model of industrialization for more than a century, became a model of deindustrialization as one after another of Albion’s factories closed their doors.  For decades, Albion has been confronted with the shock of lost employment opportunities.  This has meant decreased tax revenues for schools, a loss of population, and an intensification of poverty among the remaining citizenry.  Added to this, Michigan adopted Schools of Choice options.  Albion began to lose children to the schools of neighboring communities.  No doubt, a variety of motives influenced those who chose to leave the Albion Public Schools, but a pattern of white flight meant that the Albion Schools were becoming more and more Black, more and more meeting the definition of a segregated school system.  As the Albion Public School enrollment declined and the school debt increased, the decision was made to close Albion’s high school.  An agreement to collaborate with Marshall High School was reached in 2013.  Henceforth, Albion High School students were welcomed at Marshall.  Soon after, Albion’s Middle School students were transferred to Marshall and, in 2016, Albion voters agreed to have the Marshall School District annex the Albion School District.  Albion High School and Middle School students were bused to Marshall. about twelve miles away.  Harrington Elementary School is the one remaining school in Albion, along with the Marshall Opportunity school and a pre-K class,  They are all administered by Marshall Public Schools. 

Albion’s community remains diverse.  The 2010 census lists Albion’s African American population at 32%.  For more than a century, Marshall, Michigan has been known as an almost lily-white town.  For the past century, the central stories of Albion and Marshall could be characterized as the “tale of two cities.”  Marshall’s annexation of Albion’s schools is, thus, not without irony.  Albion’s Harrington Elementary School remains heavily African American and meets most definitions of a segregated school.  The teaching staff is almost all white.  And Albion’s African American students attending Marshall Middle School and High School do not find Black teachers.  Thus, in 2022, Albion and Marshall face a challenge of having their teaching faculty represent their student body.  Black Teachers Mattered in 1918, Black Teachers Mattered in 1970, and Black Teachers Matter in 2022.  The diminution of the number of Black teachers is a national problem and the decreasing number of Black teachers are in demand.  This circumstance makes it easier for school administrators to acknowledge the need for diversity among the faculty and, in the same breath, announce that Black teachers are very hard to find.

The “Black Teachers Matter” Oral History Project aspires to document Albion’s initiative in recruiting African American teachers from the Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the American South in the early 1970s.  Coincidentally, African American teachers from Albion were hired and their stories will also be recorded.  For those teachers who grew up in the South, interviews will explore life in the South, racism, segregation, the civil rights movement, the experience at an HBCU, introduction to an Albion Public School representative, the decision to travel north, the arrival in Albion, racism and segregation in Albion, teaching in Albion Public Schools, perceptions of Albion’s school situation following the annexation by Marshall, and continuing community involvement as mentors and consultants. 

This project will explore related themes with the Albion Black teachers who grew up in Albion or in the North to portray the diversity dynamics in Albion Public Schools with a focus on the late 1960s and the 1970s.  This will require a systematic review of the Albion Evening Recorder (available on microfilm at the Albion District Library Local History Room) to provide context for the portraits of the teachers.  Leslie Dick, historian, archivist, videographer, editor, and oral history interviewer will be assisting on this project.

The goal of the project will be to tell the story of the Albion Black teachers and to share their stories with the community.  An additional goal is to remind the Marshall School District that Black Teachers Matter and to demonstrate the steps taken by Albion 50 years ago to assure that there were African American teachers.  Could Marshall take similar steps in 2022?  Marshall can learn from this history, contributing to a necessary conversation on the need for Black teachers today.  

From 1997, Wesley Arden Dick (with the assistance of Leslie Dick, former Director of the Albion Public Library History Room), taught an Albion College First-Year Seminar entitled “A Sense of Place:  Albion and the American Dream.”  The class was focused on the history and the current status of the community of Albion.  Students read the oral histories from the West Ward School Project.  The “Black Teachers Matter” Oral Histories will provide a similar resource for future students. Albion College’s Education Department will also find this oral history project valuable.  The Albion College Education Department is working to produce a more diverse group of future teachers.  This project can illuminate the challenges, obstacles, and opportunities confronted by the Albion community in the past and today.

To conclude, “Albion’s Story is America’s Story.”  This oral history project is tied to the rich history of the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North.  Its focus is on a Great Migration wave that brought African American teachers to Albion from the Historically Black Universities and College in the 1970s.  Those teachers taught in Albion for 40 years and more before retiring.  In retirement, they have remained dedicated to their profession and to the children of Albion.  Theirs is a remarkable story, one worth preserving and sharing.  Those retired teachers are getting up there in age, giving urgency to the recording of their stories.  Albion’s example of action by going to the South to recruit African American teachers in the 1970s is also timely given that today’s Marshall Public School teaching faculty is not diverse.  Black teachers mattered in Albion’s past.  The “Black Teachers Matter” Oral History Project is designed to inform Albion about its rich history and to inform the Marshall School District about actions taken in the past to create a teaching faculty that looks like its students.

Community Partnerships

Public Schools and education remain a central concern and priority among Albion’s citizens.  Many retired Albion Public School teachers remain engaged in mentoring and educational support.  Outstanding in this have been retired African American teachers who graduated from HBCUs.  These teachers are also active in the Albion Branch NAACP.  The Albion Branch NAACP is invested in the Albion-Marshall School experience.  The Branch supports Albion preserving its history and understands that the past can inform the present.

The oral history interviews are former teachers who reside in Albion, making this a community-based endeavor.  The history that is recorded will be valued by Albion citizens, the Albion College Education Department, and the Marshall Public Schools.

The Albion District Library Local History Room houses archival resources.  The Local History Room and Albion College will provide space for oral history interviews.

The Participants in this Study

Wesley Arden Dick is the senior Albion College faculty member.  In partnership with Robert Wall and Leslie Dick, he directed the Michigan Humanities Council Heritage Grant (2015-2016) that culminated with the oral histories of 20 West Ward School alumni, a permanent photo historical display on history hill at Holland Park in Albion, and with a West Ward website that features essays and the oral history interviews.  Upon completion of the MHC Heritage Grant, the MHC invited the Albion team to apply for a community dialogue grant.  The Albion proposal for a community dialogue centering on the importance of Black teachers was accepted by the MHC and completed in 2018.  Professor Dick is Second Vice President of the Albion Branch NAACP and has been active in the work of the Albion NAACP and in Albion Civil Affairs.

Leslie Dick, retired Director of the Albion District Library, is a historian, archivist, and author with experience in directing and coordinating oral history projects, e.g., Albion Veterans Oral History Project and the MHC West Ward School oral history project.  Leslie is skilled in digital and computerized technology.

In 2018, Albion College bestowed honorary doctor of humanities degrees on Wesley Arden Dick and Leslie Dick for their contributions to the community.

Robert Wall, retired as teacher and administrator from Albion Public Schools and a former student in Albion Public Schools, as well as co-director of the MHC West Ward School oral history project, will be consulted for the “Black Teachers Matter” oral history project.

Akaiia Ridley, who grew up in Albion, attended Albion Public Schools, graduated from Marshall High School, is currently finishing her first-year at Albion College.  She was selected as a Build Albion Fellow, a prestigious and innovative program designed to attract Albion-area students to Albion College.  She was an outstanding student in last fall’s “A Sense of Place: Albion & the American Dream” seminar.  With deep roots in the community and aspirations as a historian, Akaiia will be introduced to the “Black Teachers Matter” oral history project and mentored regarding archival and oral history techniques.  

Diversity is central to Albion’s community story.  Albion Public Schools are an important dimension of Albion’s racial and ethnic history.  This oral history project is community based and will enrich the experience of students and inform the community and others of an important chapter in Albion’s rich history as they learn  how Albion’s connection to the Great Migration was related to the need for Black teachers in the Albion Public Schools.  Students will view and reflect on the oral histories of the Black Teachers and meet them in classes  Because Albion and its new partner, the Marshall School District, find themselves with a significant Black student count and an insignificant Black teacher count, this “Black Teachers Matter” oral history project can contribute to a conversation with Marshall’s Public School Administrators and the Marshall School Board concerning actions and initiatives needed in 2022 to create a teaching  faculty that looks like its student