Creative industries in Washtenaw County add hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy. In the weeks and months to come, host Deb Polich, the President and CEO of Creative Washtenaw, explores the myriad of contributors that make up the creative sector in Washtenaw County.
ABOUT BEVERLY WILLIS:
Bev Willis is the Administrator for the Washtenaw County Historical Society. She is vice-president of the Ann Arbor Historical Foundation, co-chair of the Exhibits and Collections committee for the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County (AACHM), and a member of the African American Endowment Fund. She is also a freelance graphic designer, project consultant and volunteer for local organizations. Bev has 14 years of experience at the Museum on Main Street developing exhibits, print materials and digital media to share stories at the heart of this community’s heritage.
Her passion for history, art and community service was ignited by her own family’s story and the museums, monuments, and parks in Washington DC where she grew up.
Education
- Howard University, Washington DC
- University of Michigan, Bachelor of Fine Arts degree
Employment
- University of Michigan
- Ann Arbor Transportation Authority
- Freelance graphic designer
- Washtenaw County Historical Society
RESOURCES:
Washtenaw County Historical Society
African American Cultural and Historic Museum of Washtenaw County
Ann Arbor Historical Foundation
TRANSCRIPTION:
Deb Polich: Welcome to 89 one WEMU's creative:impact. Thanks for joining me, Deb Polich, president and CEO of Creative Washtenaw and your host, as we meet the artists and creatives who make this one of the most vibrant communities in the state. It's my pleasure to welcome back Bev Willis to the show! Bev is the administrator of the Washtenaw County Historical Society. She also holds positions with the Ann Arbor Historical Foundation and the African American Cultural and Historic Museum of Washtenaw County. And she's a member of the African American Endowment Fund. You may guess that museums and archiving history is our topic. Bev, I'm so glad to have you back on the show!
Bev Willis: Thank you! It's great to be here!
Deb Polich: So, 60 years ago this summer, on July 2nd, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. And just one year before that, on August 28th, 1963, a celebration that we're marking this week, the March on Washington took place. You, Bev, were a child living in Washington, and because your parents and extended family were deeply involved with the civil rights effort, you had an inside view. You talked about your history the last time you were on the show in 2020. But for those that might not have been listening or don't remember, would you mind giving us a brief summary of that time?
Bev Willis: Sure. I'd be happy to do that. I was a young girl. My father and mother were raising a young family of four children, and my dad got a call. He was the newspaper reporter for the Evening Star. My father was just 36 when he came to the Star after extensive work as an associate editor at Jet and Ebony Magazine in Chicago and as the first Black reporter for the Post-Tribune in Gary, Indiana. He had a relative who lived in Harlem, New York City, very close to A. Philip Randolph, one of the major organizers of the March on Washington. And when my dad's aunt found out that this march was being organized in just 8 or 9 weeks, she told A. Philip Randolph, "You need to talk to my nephew." And I remember the day, a hot summer day in Washington, D.C., we got in the car for a three-hour trip, drove up to New York City, and my father met with A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin to talk about this march that was happening in Washington, D.C.. Now, when he came back to D.C. to his job, he let his editor know at the Evening Star about that march. Editors spiked this story, but The Washington Post had five African-American reporters at the time. The Evening Star had just one. And that reporter was my dad. Once the Washington Post started to cover the story, my dad was put as lead reporter on the March of Washington.
Deb Polich: That's just an amazing story! So, marking anniversaries has purpose. And from a historian's point of view, why do you think anniversaries are so important?
Bev Willis: I think anniversaries are important. Longevity brings many opportunities for us to reflect on what happened before we were here and what will happen possibly after we're gone. And in those moments, we need to have records, photographs, stories, documents that tell us about what happened, actually, at one moment that was present in time. So, when we have anniversaries, it allows people to bring their memories together and look at it as a collective whole. What we have discovered about the anniversary of the March on Washington, or even Ann Arbor's own bicentennial celebration, Ypsilanti celebrated their 200 years in 2023, Ann Arbor in 2024, it puts the focus on why being here and being present matters.
Deb Polich: I think you've got that spot-on. 89 one WEMU's creative:impact continues. Bev Willis and I are talking about her childhood and family legacy in the Civil Rights Movement. So, anniversaries also give us a chance to explore a little bit further. You know, many of us have images in our head of that march on Washington, whether it's Doctor King or Mahalia Jackson or the signing of the Civil Rights Act with the President. But it also lets us look a little bit deeper. And for every public figure that's remembered, there's always somebody else behind the scenes. Your dad, Clarence Hunter, as that reporter for the Washington Evening Star, covered the march. But he was also, I believed, rather on the spot, put into service editing a speech--a speech that also made history and perhaps a statesman's career. Can you tell us that story real quickly?
Bev Willis: Sure. As my father opened up some of the experiences of his life to us, he shared some of the documents and materials that he had from his years of work. And one of those things that he had was a pencil-edited version of the original speech that John Lewis was going to give at the March on Washington. And John Lewis was a young man at that time. And his approach--his thoughts--were like many of the younger generation, a little bit different from the older generation. And in order to give his speech, he had to make these edits. He was not the only one who had to do that, but my dad had in his papers the pencil version of the edited speech, because that document is available online as a text document, where you can see the original text has been crossed out and what he actually said was in place, I can look at that in comparison to the one that I have and see those edits in pencil in hand, along with many other documents from that era--things like the teletype reports. That was back in the day, when the reporter went to the phone to make the call, and it would come across the newsroom on that machine, just like faded fax copies from the 90s and 80s. We have these faded copies from that time in 1963.
Deb Polich: That's amazing! And I've seen that document. You shared there with me, and it still gives me shivers every time I look at it. So. Let's talk about legacy. You are in possession of a lot of documents from your dad and your family. You are a historian. You know about archiving and the importance of it. What are you thinking about doing with your archives?
Bev Willis: I don't think there is ever a time where I have felt more responsible for sharing this information in my entire life. We have been reaching out to and have been reached out to by a couple of organizations and museums who would like to have these materials. What I have learned about history is it starts with family. The first job that we're going to do is to consult as a family, to appreciate, to look at, to express our own feelings about these items and then discuss as a collective where we would like to have these live. In my family, when my mother decided to donate her father's papers to the Spingarn Collection at Howard University Law School, before she did that, she went through everything, put together in a set of what she felt was the most important, vital pieces of information for us as children and then donated the actual materials to Howard University.
Deb Polich: Wow!
Bev Willis: We feel the same weight of that responsibility, and it's a beautiful weight to carry. It is something that every family possesses.
Deb Polich: Well, you're right. I mean, it's your family history, but it's also our nation's history. It's such an important aspect of our world. And as you said, this time that we're in now brings that up over and over and over again. So, I respect--and I think we all respect--what it is that you and your family are considering doing and to make those documents and what you have available to the public to examine, to reinterpret, to look at is remarkable.
Bev Willis: Yes. One of the things that I've learned, as I've been reading more about my own dad's work, is there were some interviews that he gave when he was a young reporter, but he told me later in life he had evolved from that way of thinking or being. And I learned that one of the most valuable lessons about family history and community history is when we listen to the person who lived the experience, it just enriches our understanding of how things have come to be to the way that they are.
Deb Polich: And you're so right!
Bev Willis: It's so much easier.
Deb Polich: But we all evolve. And to think that a marked time in history is the end is not true. You know, it's about that evolution. And it's about that moving forward.
Bev Willis: It is true. When the African American Museum--the National Museum in Washington, D.C.--was starting to gather artifacts for the collections, they went through so many cities in the area, invited people to bring materials to just talk about what was their family documents and what was important. And one of the things we learned from Lonnie Bunch, who was the president of the museum at the time, he told us every artifact came from people who did not even understand how their small family history fit into the huge mosaic of American history to be included is the magic.
Deb Polich: Well, thank you for that. And I hope everybody who's listening thinks in terms of their own lives and their own experiences. And thank you for being the person you are and capturing, protecting and moving forward the history of our community. I just thank you for being on the show and sharing your experiences!
Bev Willis: And I thank you for inviting me! I've truly enjoyed this, and I love to work with the Washtenaw County Historical Society and all of our local historical organizations and museums. We want to make sure that, in the next 200 years, there's generations of people who can be so thankful for the amazing work that we did in this time while we can.
Deb Polich: Absolutely! That's Bev Willis, local historian whose family legacy was at the center of the Civil Rights Movement. Find out more about her and her work at wemu.org. You've been listening to creative:impact. I'm Deb Polich, president and CEO of Creative Washtenaw and your host. Mat Hopson is our producer. Please join us every Tuesday to meet the people who make Washtenaw creative. This is 89 one WEMU FM, Ypsilanti. Public radio from Eastern Michigan University.
If you'd like to a guest on creative:impact, email Deb Polich at deb.polich@creativewashtenaw.org.
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