The records will interest researchers considering the history of Willow Run, the particular contributions and experiences of its African American citizens, and the evolution of a Michigan community with roots in wartime defense work. It is also an example of a grass-roots effort to address the lack of documentation of black residents' contributions to the expansion of a formerly rural area.
Willow Run Village is twenty-five miles southwest of Detroit, half in Ypsilanti township and half in Superior township. It was originally created in 1942 in response to an acute shortage by the National Housing Agency as temporary housing for defense workers. Thousands of workers had already migrated into the mostly rural area to seek work at the Willow Run Bomber Plant operated by the Ford Company. Workers first settled in 1943 into 1,900 dormitory units designed for single men and women. Willow Village with 2,500 family units was completed a few months later. These were soon followed by a trailer park, duplex trailers, another thousand family units, and 1,960 more dormitory units. Peak occupancy was reached in 1944 when 8,820 units were utilized by more than 18,000 bomber plant workers and their families.
When the war ended, a majority of families returned to the distant farms and small communities they once left behind, and "Bomber City" housing was soon utilized by veterans. By the fall of 1946, 1,200 furnished units were maintained for University of Michigan married students. Arriving at the Village at the rate of fifty to sixty a week, 1,500 student G.I. families were living there by 1947. In 1951, Kaiser-Frazer Corporation purchased the Willow Run plant from the government and began producing C-119 aircraft and automobiles on parallel assembly lines. Occupancy increased to 15,000 residents. By 1953, 20,000 people were slated to be evicted when the Public Housing Administration declared the project surplus and began to schedule demolition. Instead, Ypsilanti township purchased Willow Run from the government -- a first step toward transforming Willow Run from a war relic to a permanent community.
Numbers of early Willow Run families remained in the area over the years, including some of the first plant workers and returning veterans. Many original African American residents, along with a second generation, became community leaders during the late 1940s and 1950s. From these roots, the Willow Run Black History Organization, which focused on the evolution and underdocumentation of black history and culture in the area, was born. The notion was sparked in 1983 by Roberta Bryant, a Willow Run High teacher and counselor. She stimulated students and parents to study the history of their own community and its rich legacy, focusing particularly on first-hand accounts of surviving early leaders and residents. The project was formalized in March of the same year, when a committee comprised of Bryant, Mildred Ross, and Tessie Freeman met for the first time to structure the organization. Bryant was named director, Freeman president, Ross secretary, and David Lynn vice-president.
Incorporated in August 1983 as a non-profit, the Willow Run Black History Organization was established to meet the following objectives:
- Document Willow Run black history.
- Honor individual accomplishments.
- Produce a black history publication and film.
- Promote the humanities and education.
- Foster racial understanding.
Toward these ends, volunteers created and distributed questionnaires, conducted oral interviews, and searched for former residents. Individuals donated clippings, pages from scrapbooks, photographs, and other personal mementos.
Efforts to obtain grant funding went unrealized, however, and the dream of a publication and video focusing on the black legacy in Willow Run never came to fruition. However, the organization was successful in raising awareness through exhibits and publicity of the contributions of African Americans to a unique Michigan community. Among WRBHO's contributions to posterity was a far-sighted decision made early on to preserve collected material. From the start, it was the intent of the organization to donate the records to an archival institution, thus assuring that accumulated data remained available for synthesis, analysis, and interpretation by researchers for generations to come.
