Brigette Davis

The sound of the phone ringing is embedded in my sort of memory of life growing up.

The phone was always ringing, and it wasn't just one phone.

At one point, we had three lines ringing.

And my mom tried to keep them separate, so to speak.

One was a business line, one was a personal line, one was the children's phone line.

But of course, you know, if people couldn't get through, and these are the days before call waiting, if people couldn't get through and they were anxious, some of them had access to a personal number and they'd start calling that one.

So yeah, ringing phones.

And that enabled him to buy property.

And so he was both a businessman and a property owner.

And so my mom witnessed his entrepreneurial spirit and was highly, highly influenced by him.

She really admired her father's life.

But like many African Americans, she decided to migrate north with her family in the mid-50s so that they could have better opportunities and more liberties.

And so they chose Michigan and ultimately Detroit.

And they hadn't prepared themselves for what was awaiting.

One, the racism in Michigan was so virulent and distinctive from the southern sort of discrimination they'd known about that it took them off guard.

They weren't prepared for that.

And the way it manifested was in all the key ways.

They couldn't find decent housing.

They were charged exorbitant rent.

My father was unable to find steady work.