My father, Albert B. Cleage, Jr (front row, second from left), with his 8th grade class at Wingert Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan. He was 12 years old. It was 1923.Albert B. Cleage Jr., 8th Grader
My father, Albert B. Cleage, Jr (front row, second from left), with his 8th grade class at Wingert Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan. He was 12 years old. It was 1923.
That's a great picture, now. What year was this?
He was born in 1911 so it was about 1923. I should put that up there.
This photograph caught my eye because of the building. I wonder if many school buildings looked the same 90 years ago because I have several class photographs with with my mother and the rest of the students in front of a very similar building! Hers were taken a few years later.
Nancy, she wasn't in Detroit, was she?
Kristin, were multiracial classes like this rare in 1923? I always imagined they were but perhaps I am wrong. great photo.
In Detroit I guess it depended on what community you lived in. My uncles said that abundance of white children in this class was because there was an orphanage across from the school at that time. When they got to Northwestern High School after graduation, there was a much smaller percentage of black students and, depending on the teacher, more or less discrimination. There are many tales of my grandmother going up to the school to demand her children not be seated in the back of the classroom and other outward signs. wish I had interviewed her.
This is a great class photo.