ANN ARBOR—A $5,000 grant from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation will partially fund a joint effort of the University of Michigan and the Washtenaw County African American Cultural and Historical Museum. Other community historians will also join the collaboration to research and publicly present the history of the Underground Railroad in the Washtenaw County area.

The University’s Arts of Citizenship Program, under the direction of David Scobey, and the Museum will launch a three-stage project that will begin with research on the history of the Underground Railroad in Washtenaw County. This work will be led by U-M faculty and students with assistance from some of the Museum’s working group members.
Depending on the materials uncovered by the researchers, the work may culminate in exhibitions, additions to school curricula, and the development of a bus tour of the pertinent sites in the county. Such tours will be developed to fit the needs of schools, tourists, and local community groups. The tours would be hosted by the Museum with possible support from the Arts of Citizenship program.

“We envision doing the research this academic year,” says Scobey. “We don’t know yet what form the presentation of the research will take when completed, but both the Arts of Citizenship and the Museum are eager to get the results out to the public.”

“As yet the Washtenaw County African American Cultural and Historical Museum does not have a permanent location,” says Vivian D. Lyte, a Museum board member. “But the Museum does maintain an office in Ann Arbor.”
The Museum has worked in partnership with the University Musical Society and the Ann Arbor Public Library, organizing art exhibits and programs for a variety of sites, including the Harlem Nutcracker, the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival, and Washtenaw Community College.

As a partner in Imagining America, a national program sponsored by the White House Millennium Council, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation granted seven universities grants to support projects by campus-based artists and humanists working in collaboration with community leaders. The grants are intended to recognize examples of public scholarship, each of which addresses an issue of cultural or social significance at the local, regional or national level.

• Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
• Arts of Citizenship Program
• University Musical Society
• Imagining America