African Americans in Lansing

Click William Leabs, Jr. - Large to view an enlarged version of the image.

Here, we see William Leabs, Jr., an African American businessman. He's standing in front of his store, the Marquette Shoe Shining Parlor. This business is listed in the Lansing City Directories of 1902 and 1904, and the photo presumably dates from about that same time frame.

Lansing's African American heritage is as old as the city itself. Lansing's first black resident of record is James Little, a freed slave from New York state. Little came to Lansing in 1847 (the year of the city's founding) and started a farm.

Lansing's black population increased slowly during the remainder of the 19th Century. Many black settlers came from other Northern states and from the upper South. Some were Canadians descended from escaped slaves. Others came from elsewhere in Michigan, with the majority of those hailing from Cass County (Freed slave communities had been established there before the Civil War.).

As more families came, a clear African American community began to develop in Lansing. By 1900, most blacks lived on the city's west side, close to where the Oldsmobile plant would one day stand. They tended to be more educated and skilled than blacks in large urban areas. Sixty percent of Lansing's African Americans were homeowners, and a few owned businesses. Discrimination did force most to seek jobs in the service industry, however, and many worked as waiters, cooks and domestic servants.

-Bob Garrett, Archivist
E-mail:garrettr1@michigan.gov

For more information on Lansing's African Americans, click The Birth and Death of Lansing's Black Neighborhoods to read an article by Bob Garrett.

To access the Archives of Michigan circular on African American history sources, click Archives Circular.

For a special highlight of the Archives of Michigan's African American history sourcs, click Archives - Black History Month.

For a list of Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries' Black History Month web pages, click HAL - Black History Month.

Previous Images of the Month pages about Michigan African Americans can be found in the Image of the Month Archives. Click Image of the Month Archives to access all former Image of the Month pages.

Click Archives of Michigan to visit the Archives of Michigan home page.

Archives of Michigan
Michigan Library and Historical Center
702 W. Kalamazoo Street
Lansing, MI 48913
Phone: (517) 373-1408
E-mail: archives@michigan.gov

This page is the Archives Image of the Month page for February 2008.