Black Scroll Network History & Tours

05/05/2025

In 1941, Thomas “Rooster” Hammond, owner of the Frog Club; Irving Roane, owner of the Arcade Barbershop, and the Red Rooster Café; and Walter Norwood, owner of the Norwood Hotel and the Club Plantation, financially backed John White to buy what became the Hotel Gotham in 1943.

John White, was a bookkeeper for Hammond and Roane, who along with Norwood, were major numbers/policy men in Detroit.

John White was able to buy the hotel with less pushback, because White looked white.

Eventually, Norwood would be forced out of this partnership due to his testifying on the top numbers men in Black Detroit – John Roxborough and Everett Watson.

John White would then use his profits to buy Hammond out too.

In 1949, he would buy Roane out as well, and own the hotel outright. Black professionals, celebrities, middle and wealthy African Americans would stay at the Gotham.

Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Sammy Davis Jr., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others stayed at the Gotham.

However, as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley were being destroyed in the 1950s and 60s, the venues that were bringing so many wealthy and famous Black people to Detroit were diminishing. This was hurting the businesses in the Sugar Hill District.

On top of that, white-owned hotels began to open their doors to successful African Americans.

And the medical center was expanding, buying land and property from the Black-owned businesses near the Gotham.

Together, these factors devastated the remaining Black business districts in Detroit.

The Gotham closed in 1962.

But it operated semi-secretly as a gambling club.
It was raided by federal, state and city law enforcement in 1963.

While John White was waiting for trial, he died of a heart attack.

The hotel was destroyed for the expansion of the Detroit Medical Center in 1963.

It’s over 60 years later, and the medical center has never expanded to that vacant lot.

Urban Renewal.

05/03/2025

Along with Paradise Valley & Black Bottom, Motown owes it existence and success to another neighborhood in Detroit - 12th-Dexter-Linwood. Before it was named Motown, Berry Gordy Jr. named his record company, Tamla Records. And there is no Tamla Records or Motown without the 12th-Dexter-Linwood neighborhood.

Let me explain.

Marv Johnson was a local singer and was working at the Prince Adams Record Mart on 12th and Hazelwood, almost across the street from where the Joseph Walker Williams Recreation Center sits today. After meeting Berry Gordy Jr. and his then-wife Raynoma Liles Gordy, Marv Johnson auditioned for the couple in the backroom of the record store.

Marv Johnson was the singer on the 1st Tamla Records single, “Come to Me,” in 1959. Berry Gordy Jr. pressed the records in the back of a 2-family flat at 1719 Gladstone, near 12th street just a couple of blocks away from the Joseph Walker Williams Center, and down the street from Hutchins Middle School.

Also a block away and behind the Williams Recreation Center was 2040 Blaine, which was the studio of the Rayber Music Writing Company, which was the songwriting company founded by Berry Gordy Jr. and his 2nd wife Raynoma Liles. The Rayber Voices rehearsed and recorded in the basement there, and the group included a legendary singer-songwriter named Brian Holland, who would become 1/3rd of the Motown songwriting powerhouse group – Holland Dozier Holland

The whole 12th-Dexter-Linwood neighborhood and its residents – Johnnie Mae Matthews (Blaine & Linwood), Marv Johnson (Prince Adams Record Mart-12th & Hazelwood), Otis Williams (W. Philadelphia btw Byron & Hamilton), Melvin Franklin (Clairmount & Hamilton), the Rayber Music Writing Co.(Blaine near 14th), Joe’s Records (12th & Pingree), and so many others helped to bring Berry Gordy Jr’s vision to life.

There is no Motown without Tamla, and there is no Tamla without the 12th-Dexter-Linwood community.

04/27/2025

RIP to a legend in Black Education. I have every one of his books. I’ve known him for decades. I first met him when I introduced him at a lecture in Haworth College of Business at Western Michigan University for the Young Black Males Support Network.

I’ve introduced him to numerous audiences in college, at conferences, and at teacher training seminars.

His work has been a major influence on my work, especially in the classroom. The book pictured here is my favorite book from him.

He made a significant, a powerful, a monumental contribution to Black education and educators.

Aṣẹ!

04/27/2025

Born in 1930 Louisiana, Mable John moved to Detroit with her family at the age of 11, as part of the Great Migration. Her father found a job at an auto factory, which was switching production to defense products for the US military.

The family lived in the Dequindre Housing Projects on Dequindre near 6 Mile. Part of that area is now occupied by Second Ebenezer Baptist Church.

She attended Cleveland Middle School, and graduated from Pershing High School.

And she could SING.

She was still singing in her Pentecostal church choir, when her younger brother - Little Willie John - became a hit singer. When she began accompanying him on the road, she was kicked out of the choir and then the church, due to his and her singing, ‘the devil’s music.”

Before and after graduating from high school, she worked at Friendship Mutual Insurance Agency, an insurance and real estate company founded and owned by Bertha Fuller Gordy.

Bertha Gordy had 8 children, including a son named Berry Gordy Jr..

Mable John attended Lewis College of Business, the 1st HBCU in the city of Detroit, and Bertha Gordy, aware of Mable’s singing ability, informed Mable John that her son, Berry Gordy Jr., was a songwriter that may be able to write songs for her.

Berry, along with being a songwriter, began playing piano for Mable John as she performed in local venues. In 1959, as her manager, he booked her at the Flame Show Bar, where she opened for legendary jazz vocalist, Billie Holiday, at her last concert in Detroit, just 2 weeks before she died.

While Berry Gordy Jr. was managing her and booking her performances, Mable John was working as a chauffeur for him, because he didn’t know how to drive. When Gordy founded Motown Records, Mable John became the 1st female solo artist to sign with the label.

Claudette Robinson was the 1st woman to join Motown, but she signed as a member of The Miracles.

Mable John, a blues singer, would not be able to make chart-topping hits with Motown Records, which by the mid-60s, was mainly a R&B/Pop crossover music label. She died in 2022 at the age of 91.

04/27/2025

04/26/2025

Armen Boladian, a Detroit music producer founded Westbound Records in Detroit in 1968. He signed Funkadelic to the label in 1970. After seeing the attraction of Funk Music, Boladian looked for more groups with the Funk sound. And he found it, in Dayton, OH.

A group called the Ohio Untouchables, after some lineup changes became the Ohio Players. After an unsuccessful 1969 debut album on Capitol Records, they signed with Boladian and Westbound Records in 1971, joining the label and stable that Funkadelic was already at.

(George Clinton & Armen Boladian have been at odds for decades. Last month, March 2025, Clinton and his attorney Ben Crump, filed a $10 million lawsuit, against Boladian and Westbound Records over royalties, copyright issues and music ownership.)

The Ohio Players recorded “Pain” in 1971, which became a R&B top 40 hit on the Billboard chart. They recorded 3 albums in Detroit on Westbound Records at the same time that Funkadelic was recording at the same label.

It would be in Detroit - at Westbound Records - that the Ohio Players would adopt the sexy woman album covers.

So yes, Dayton-Cincinnati are central to Funk music. But without Detroit, Funk music would never be what it became.

The 1971 Ohio Players lineup consisted of:

Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner - guitar & vocals
Walter “Junie” Morrison - keyboards & vocals
Ralph “Pee Wee” Middlebrooks - trombone & vocals
Clarence Satchell (aka ‘Andrew Noland’) - saxophone & vocals
Bruce Napier - trumpet and vocals
Marvin Pierce - flugelhorn & vocals
Gregory Webster - drums
Marshall “Rock” Jones - bass guitar
Dale Allen - vocals

04/25/2025

105 Years Ago - On April 25th, 1920 - Esther Gordy Edwards was born in Georgia.

At the age of 2, her parents moved to Detroit, where she grew up with her 7 siblings. She attended and graduated from Cass Tech., and then went to & graduated from Howard University.

Esther, Fuller & George Gordy - started the Gordy Printing Co. Esther led the management of the Printing Co..

Esther Gordy Edwards also founded the Ber-Berry Co-Op - a family savings account that family members contributed to and could receive business loans from. Without the Ber-Berry Co-Op, some of the Gordy businesses, Including the most famous one, would not exist.

Businesses started by the family were:

The photo concession at the Flame Show Bar, owned by sisters Anna & Gwen Gordy;

The 3D Record Mart, a jazz record store owned by brother Berry Gordy Jr.;

Anna Records; owned by Anna Gordy, Gwen Gordy and Rocquel Billy Davis;

& Tri-Phi Records, owned by Gwen Gordy & Harvey Fuqua.

And of course, Motown Records, founded by Berry Gordy Jr..

Berry Gordy Jr. took out a $800 loan from the Ber-Berry Co-Op to start Motown.

Esther Gordy Edwards founded The Motortown R***e in 1962. Later that year, she began negotiating with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to record his speeches. That deal would be finalized in June, 1963 by Berry Gordy Jr..

After founding the Motown R***e, Esther Gordy Edwards, Berry Gordy Jr.’s older sister, became the VP at Motown.

And in 1985, she founded the Motown Museum.

04/23/2025

If you watched the “We Want The Funk,” documentary on Independent Lens | PBS, directed by Stanley Nelson and Nicole London, then you know that although Dayton-Cincinnati are major sites in the development of Funk Music, Detroit is very important too.

Although the documentary showed how Detroit and Motown Records played a part in the creation of P-Funk, there were many Detroit funk stories that were not told in the film.

And one of them is about a group known as The Fabulous Counts.

The group started out mainly performing as a backing band for major performers who toured to Detroit.

But they were also making their own music.

And it was Funky.

Their first records came out in 1968 on Detroit-based Moira Records.

In 1971, they signed with another Detroit-based record label - Westbound Records - and shortened their name, to “The Counts.”

The new lineup was:
Mose Davis - vocals, keyboards
Demo Cates - vocals, alto saxophone
Jimmy Brown - vocals, saxophone
Leroy Emanuel - vocals, guitar
Jimmy Jackson - vocals, drums

One of their funk hits that year was, “What’s Up Front That Counts.”

Funkadelic was already signed to Westbound prior to the Counts, and in 1972, after The Counts were already on the label, Westbound signed The Ohio Players.

Westbound was creating a Funk army.

However, the Counts would leave the label by 1972, and sign with Aware Records.

04/21/2025

If you watched the Independent Lens | PBS documentary “We Want The Funk,” you should know that Detroit was one of the centers of Funk Music in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.

You should also know that Motown - both directly and indirectly - played a role in the evolution and spread of Funk music.

If you didn’t know, before developing the P-Funk sound, George Clinton was a songwriter and producer at Motown. When he recorded his 1st hit - “I Wanna Testify,” in 1967, his bandmates were unable to get to Detroit from New Jersey, so Clinton brought in musicians and singers from Detroit - including some of the Funk Brothers - the Motown house band.

But another Detroit music act that needs to be discussed is Richard “Popcorn” Wylie.

Popcorn Wylie was born and raised in Detroit. While a student at Northwestern High School, he started on the football team - the Wildcats - and played against a Motown legend - Smokey Robinson, who was on the Northern High School football team - the Jayhawks.

And like Smokey, Popcorn was into music.

Smokey’s group the Five Chimes, went on to become the Matadors and eventually, the Miracles.

Popcorn’s group was the Mohawks. You probably haven’t heard of them.

But these are the members:

James Jamerson
Norman Whitfield
Clifford Mack
Lamont Dozier
Eddie Willis
& Mike Terry

Bet you heard of some of them now.

Popcorn Wylie signed with Motown in 1960, and after not having a hit, became a backing musician. He became the bandleader for The Motortown R***e and that’s him on piano on the Miracles’ “Shop Around.”

After leaving Motown for nearly a decade, he came back in 1971, and recorded his biggest hit - “Funky Rubber Band.”

This mostly instrumental funk single was a hit on the R&B charts.

Popcorn Wylie died in 2008 in Detroit at the age of 69.

04/16/2025

100 Years Ago - On April 15, 1925 - a major housing battle between Black residents and a racist white mob would take place on Detroit’s westside.

WHAT HAPPENED?

In March 1923, Fleta Mae McCrary left Georgia and joined her older brothers - Magellan & Horace; her family friends - James Burton, Austin Burton, and Susie Burton; and her future husband, Aldine Mathis, who had already moved to Detroit.

In November of that year, Fleta and and Aldine Mathis got married here in Detroit.

2 years after her arrival - in March 1925 - they moved to the Old Westside neighborhood into the lower flat at 5913 Northfield with their friends from Georgia - another Black couple - Austin & Susie Burton. They were immediately threatened by white so-called neighbors, and the K*K.

In April, mobs of white residents gathered outside of their home. Aldine and his friend Austin Burton, both WWI veterans, had to stand on the porch with their rifles to get the crowd to move away.

On April 13, bricks were thrown through the window. With threats hurling from the white mob, Fleta Mathis, Black woman in her 20s, grabbed the pistol from the bedside table and fired 2 shots out the window.

No one was hit, but the crowd ran away. She was arrested.

Her attorneys were W. Hayes McKinney & Cecil Rowlette.

McKinney was the former President of the Detroit Branch NAACP, and was, at the time, their lead attorney. Rowlette was a respected Black attorney, received his law degree from the Detroit College of Law (now, Michigan State University College of Law), and established his own law firm in Detroit.

The judge eventually ruled that she fired in defense of her home, and that her act was legal.

The Mathises were not forced out.
They would live there for the next few years.

They lived in a number of other places in and around Detroit, including Ecorse, MI, and the Conant Gardens, neighborhood in Detroit.

But the self defense argument of Fleta Mathis would play a prominent role in another case that year - the case of Dr. Ossian Sweet.

*Pictured here - 5913 Northfield - the home of the Mathises and Burtons.

04/11/2025

Here at Dossin Elementary-Middle School for a presentation on Detroit’s Black History. And I see this mural in their hallway.