Collection: Detroit Memorial Park (West) - Redford Charter Township

Prior to the purchase of the land that would become the famed historical site, Detroit Memorial Park, Blacks in the City of Detroit suffered embarrassment and indignities by White owned cemeteries. Such atrocities included, but were not limited to, burials on certain designated days and inconvenient times so as not to disturb other White families during their burial or visiting times, having to enter through rear or side maintenance entrances, excessive fees, gravesite desecrations, etc.

Although most Blacks lived in the City of Detroit, adequate housing, health care, jobs and wages were scarce. The disenfranchised and disgruntled Black community sought to remedy these indignities by uniting and providing for their own. The purchase of the first eight-five acres of land in the Township of Warren was done so out of necessity, since the all African-American corporation could not purchase land in the City of Detroit. In 1925 led by the ideas and frustration of prominent businessman