On Oct. 6, 2022, the student body of Community high school gathered on a clear-skied autumn afternoon to remember Ann Arbor’s Black history.
The theme of the school year is “Hidden Histories,” marking the 100 year anniversary of Jones School — the predominantly Black school that once occupied our now beloved building. A commemoration was commenced and hosted by the CR “Hidden Histories: Jones School and Black Ann Arbor” proctored by CHS social studies teacher, Joslyn Hunscher-Young, and former social studies teacher, Cindy Haidu-Banks.
The class includes CHS students Navi Fields, Ireland Johnson and Nick Idzikowski, who all spoke at the ceremony. Johnson, a CHS senior, spoke on why Jones was forced to close and the impact it had on the community around it.
“In 1963, nine years after the landmark Supreme Court Case Brown vs Board of Education ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, the nation’s Civil Rights movement commenced in Ann Arbor,” Johnson said. “Jones was considered a de facto segregated school, at that time 75% of the students were Black. Six Ann Arbor schools had no black students. After much public debate, hearings and meetings, a 12-member Citizens Committee was appointed to study racial imbalance in Ann Arbor Public Schools. Ultimately they recommended that the Board of Education close Jones. In 1965, Jones school was closed.”
Along with that, there were several lawsuits against Jones School due to its level of education not meeting district standards, Hunscher-Young elaborated.
“They did this whole investigation and decided to close it,” Hunscher-Young said. “Then separate the predominantly Black kids right into these different schools and [took] them to different places.”
While the original plan for Jones School was to have it integrated, due to resistance from wealthy, white families, the Black students were bussed rather than white students. Jones students were separated and sent to seven different schools—some without reliable transportation.
One of those former Jones students who was bussed away was Paul Harrison. Harrison, who attended the ceremony, is a graduate of Jones Elementary and one of the first ever graduates of CHS.
Harrison started kindergarten at Jones in the fall of 1963. After Jones was forced to close, he was bussed away to Pattengill with no say. He came back in 1972 to attend Community High School. While the building itself remained the same, the experiences were completely different.
“The difference was night and day,” Harrison said. “Community was just figuring out how to be Community. Teachers were interviewed by students, everything was a different paradigm.”
Though Harrison was quite young when he was forced to leave Jones he has one beloved memory.
“Just walking to school,” Harrison said. “I lived right down Fifth Avenue right up from Wheeler Park, it was a five or ten minute walk. What is now Zingermans used to be a little neighborhood grocery store where we’d go and get candy.”
More than the physical school itself, Harrison remembers how the community embraced it.
Harrisons recognizes and wants to echo the importance of keeping this history alive, the purpose of this commemoration.
“It’s a powerful story that needs to be told because it’s not Black history, it's history,” Harrison said. “It should be embedded in the history of Ann Arbor and the history of Jones School.”
“It’s a powerful story that needs to be told because it’s not Black history, what it is is its history,” Harrison said. “It should be embedded in the history of Ann Arbor and the history of Jones School.”
The point of the CR was to reiterate the importance of Jones history; the students who created this event had the same centralized goal as Harrison.
“It is something that really shouldn't be forgotten,” Johnson said. “It’s such a significant part of the community and if we’re going to be using this building, it should be remembered also as Jones.”
With the “Hidden Histories” school year, the Jones School Committee and CR hopes to hold events throughout the year and uncover Jones School to keep its memory alive.
“All of the stuff that we [will] do throughout the year,” Hunscher-Young said. “All the different learning opportunities and events that we have [will] help our students and staff to recognize this history and to think about both this specific story and this history and the stories of the people that used to be here to understand our place in the community and in this world.”