Gala to celebrate Detroit’s Black American Trailblazers: Lions coach Jim Caldwell to be honored

By Karen Hudson Samuels/Tell Us Detroit

DETROIT, MI (Tell Us Det) - The Detroit Historical Society’s Black Historic Sites Committee is observing its 43rd Anniversary Gala, which honors African American trailblazers in all fields of endeavor.

This year the historic hiring of Jim Caldwell is being recognized, it marks the first time in Detroit Lions history that an African American will lead the NFL team. At the college level, Caldwell held his first breakthrough position. At Wake Forest University he became the first African American head football coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference from 1993 to 2000.

WXYZ-TV weekend sports anchor/reporter David Solano will serve as the Gala’s master of ceremonies which in addition to sports, will honor the groundbreaking achievements of African Americans in banking, publishing, education, and the field of library science will be showcased at the 43rd Anniversary Gala.

These legacy achievers are:
• Aubrey W. Lee, Sr., the first African American branch manager and lender at NBD, and one of the first black vice presidents of a major U.S. bank.
• Broadside Press, the pioneering African American publisher of poetry, founded by the late Dudley Randall.

• Clara Stanton Jones, the first African American director of the Detroit Public Library (posthumous).

• Fannie Richards, the first African American schoolteacher and the first kindergarten teacher in Detroit (posthumous).

The Black Historic Sites Committee of the Detroit Historical Society was founded in 1971 by a group of volunteers with a mission to promote a greater appreciation of African American contributions to the history of Detroit and the state of Michigan.

The 43rd Annual Gala is set for Friday, July 25th at 6 p.m. at the Detroit Historical Museum. The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. with a VIP Meet and Greet reception for the honorees and their families. VIP tickets are $100 and include admission to this special reception. Standard tickets are $50 for Society and Black Historic Sites Committee members and $60 for guests and include 6 p.m. entry, a strolling dinner at 6:45, and the awards program starting at 7:30 p.m.

All tickets purchased for the event include a one-year membership in the Detroit Historical Society and the Society’s Friends of Detroit’s Black History, which supports the work of the Black Historic Sites Committee. For tickets or more information, visit detroithistorical.org or call 313.833.1262.