The Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit was once home to a thriving African American community, with homes, schools, and businesses that was razed in urban renewal efforts by the city of Detroit for the construction of interstates and manufacturing plants in the mid 1960s. This history was razed, but not erased.  

Join Marsha MacDowell, Ph.D. (AAHD, MSU Museum, Matrix, and RCAH) and Berkley Sorrells (RCAH/Honors College) to discuss an amazing quilt from the MSU Museum collections, created by a group of women who lived in the Black Bottom community, which documents the vibrancy of the now vacant land where they once lived. Marsha and Berkley will talk about the research done to date on this object, including that for which Berkley won the Grand Prize at the 2021 MSU Undergraduate Research Symposium, and what they are now doing with Detroit community members. They will also share other opportunities for student and faculty object-based research projects at the MSU Museum.