Historic Resource Survey
African American Housing in Inkster
Inkster, Michigan
Completed 2023*
Inkster, Michigan boasts a rich African American history as the southwest quadrant of the city became a haven for African American Detroiters as one of the few places that African Americans could buy a house during the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. The Detroit Urban League, the Ford Motor Company, the federal government, the Inkster Housing Commission, and some of Detroit’s brightest Black architects, like Nathan Johnson, and builders, like Edward M. Burke and John Bingham, all contributed in some manner to the development of Inkster’s African American community.
Cassandra and Katie helped document and share this history. The project involved a reconnaissance and intensive survey of the Ford-Inkster Project homes, the Carver Homes, LeMoyne Gardens, and the Watsonia Subdivision. Resources were predominantly residential, but commercial, religious, and civic resources were scattered throughout the survey area. Local libraries, historic newspapers, and property information were key resources that helped illustrate Inkster’s African American history.
The survey report and supporting materials can be found on the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office’s website, here.
*completed while employed at Kraemer Design Group