On February 19, 1830, Michigan’s first temperance organization — the Detroit Society for the Suppression of Intemperance — was organized. Its first President was General Charles Larned, a veteran of both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and who served the Territory as Attorney General.
In 1833, the organization expanded into the Michigan Temperance Society.
Sources:
Mich-Again’s Day
Malinda Russell never set out to make history. Her aim was to make a living.
Little did she know that the self-published pamphlet she penned in Paw Paw would become the pivot point in reshaping thinking about African-American culinary history
Printed in 1866, Russell’s “A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen” is the first complete African-American cookbook. Its 39 pages of 250 brief recipes for food and home remedies read like a manual for people living well in another time. For Russell, a free woman of color descended from a grandmother who was an emancipated slave, it literally was a survival manual that generated income. It documents her resilience, business savvy and confidence. She wrote that her book would be “benefitting the public as well as myself. I know my book will sell well where I have cooked.”
A bit of backstory: Russell was robbed twice of all her money, first at age 19 in Virginia by a fellow traveler as she was about to set sail for Liberia; then in her native Tennessee in 1864 by a guerrilla gang that drove her out of town. Russell, who was married, then within four years widowed and left with a disabled son, cooked for prominent families and ran a boarding house, pastry shop and wash-house. She moved on to Michigan (then billed as “the garden of the West”), where copies of her books were lost when the library that housed them burned down shortly after they were published.
We don’t know anything about the rest of her life — and it’s a wonder we know as much as we do. But history, like science, is often shaped by utterly unexpected, fortuitous discoveries.
Fast forward more than a century, and enter Jan Longone, an old-cookbook expert and, at the time, prominent rare-book dealer in Ann Arbor, not far from Paw Paw. She acquired the then-unknown pamphlet — which was discovered at the bottom of a box of other materials — after being contacted by a West Coast book dealer.
When it came in, I almost passed out,” says Longone, founder and Adjunct Curator of Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive at the University of Michigan’s Special Collections.
“I was astonished: Here was a book nobody had ever heard of — and I had the only copy of it!” Longone says. “I thought, ‘This is probably one of the most important books in America.’”
Before then, “What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Southern Cooking” (1881) by former slave Abby Fisher was considered the first African-American cookbook. The two food-related books that preceded it were by men: “Robert Roberts’ The House Servant’s Directory” (1827) and “Tunis Campbell’s Hotel Keepers, Head Waiters and Housekeepers’ Guide” (1848).
Russell’s work was so important because it offered a glimpse into fine cooking by an African-American woman who’d never been a slave and whose skills and point of view went beyond what came to be called soul food. Her work challenged ingrained views of black cuisine and emerged following the black-liberation movement’s celebration of dishes harking back to Africa.
“No one cookbook alone can provide an accurate view of African-American cooking,” Longone says. But Russell’s work, she notes, “dispels the notion of a universal black cooking experience.”
For years, notes Toni Tipton-Martin, author of “The Jemima Code,” black-history celebrations have overlooked women in food.
“Together, this free woman, Fisher, and, to some extent, the authors of house servants’ guides corroborate the notion of culinary literacy among black cooks,” she writes. The modest collections of these masterful authors are like a culinary Emancipation Proclamation for black cooks.”
Beyond recipes, Longone says Russell’s book offers “a fascinating, first-person chronicle of a free woman of color.” Like contemporary cookbooks and blogs, it tells a very personal story. Unlike many, it gives credit where credit is due — e.g., to Fanny Steward, a Virginia cook of color under whom she apprenticed, and to “The Virginia Housewife” by Mary Randolph, an upper-class white Southerner who fell on hard times and who also ran a boarding house and wrote a food book.
Russell’s book also offers insights into the food and culture of the time.
“Food provides a wonderful lens through which to view history,” says Anne Byrn, author of “American Cake.” “Malinda Russell had the ability to cross between worlds and to see how both worlds are at the heart of Southern cooking.”
Much has been written about Russell and she’s everywhere online — on blogs, Pinterest and other social-media vehicles.
“I was very impressed by her and how she speaks to us,” Longone concludes. “Malinda’s story is more than an African-American story; it’s an American story — a history that should not be confined to a cookbook shelf.”
Read Malinda online
The only known copy of Russell’s book resides at the University of Michigan. See a scan of the original 1866 publication and the 2007 facsimile
Source : Robin Watson, “1866 African-American cookbook from Michigan woman offers voice from the past“, Detroit News, February 19, 2020.
On February 19, 1896, the Detroit Convention and Businessmen’s League was formed. Now known as the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, it was the first organization of its kind in the world. See what they’re up to today on their homepage!
Source : Detroit Historical Society Home Page
As lead singer of the group Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Robinson performed hits like “The Tears of a Clown” and “The Tracks of My Tears.” As a producer and writer, he lent his skills to Mary Wells with her single “My Guy” and the Temptation’s “My Girl.” In 1972, Robinson became a solo artist, and the hits continued. Robinson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He continues to write and perform today.
Source : Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
The Tears of a Clown from YouTube.
My Girl by the Temptations.
On February 19, 1943, the first “war-worker dawn show” had more than 9,000 war plant workers from the night shift attending its 2 a.m. show. Workers were encouraged to “come as you are” and enjoy some much needed entertainment.
For more information about the Fox Theater, see Laurie J. Marzejka, “Detroit’s historic Fox Theatre”, Detroit News, January 25, 1998.
Although Jeff Daniels was born in Athens, Georgia, he was raised in Chelsea, Michigan. A famous actor, musician, and playright, Daniels lives in Chelsea, Michigan where he opened the Purple Rose Theater. Some of his many movies include Ragtime, Terms of Endearment, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Gettysburg, Gods and Generals, Pleasantville, Fly Away Home, The Squid and the Whale, and many others. He wrote and directed Escanaba in da Moonlight and Supersucker. For some of his songs, see Grandfather’s Hat which contains the Ballad of the Buckless Yooper and Live and Unplugged which contains If William Shatner Can, I Can Too; The Lifelong Tiger Fan Blues; The Dirty Harry Blues; You Can Drink An Ugly Girl Pretty; State Trooper; and Recreational Vehicle.
For more information, see Jeff Daniels Wikipedia Entry
Alysa Offman, “10 random facts about Jeff Daniels, because it’s his birthday, Detroit Metro Times, February 19, 2016.
Also see Jeff Daniels Music
Professional baseball’s last 30-game winner, Denny McLain was the first major-league baseball player suspended since 1924. McLain was later sent to prison when found guilty of charges of racketeering.
For more information, see “Detroit Tiger Denny McLain suspended over bookie allegations”, This Week In Michigan History, Detroit Free Press, February 19, 2012.
On February 19, 1976, President Gerald Ford signed the proclamation “An American Promise.” It formally announced the termination Executive Order 9066, the measure that had resulted in the uprooting of Japanese Americans and their detainment in camps during World War II.
Although E.O. 9066 had ceased to be effective once hostilities had ended, the Japanese American Citizens League and others petitioned the White House to have the termination officially recognized.
For more information see Proclamation 4417 – An American Promise courtesy of the University of California Santa Barbara.
Also mentioned on Gerald Ford Timeline
With the prison-industrial complex, racism, police brutality, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination, and more on the table, Angela Davis didn’t leave any activist’s stone unturned during her visit to Flint on Thursday.
The iconic civil rights activist, author and scholar visited the University of Michigan-Flint campus Thursday, Feb. 19, to speak to students and area residents and inspire them to fight oppression.
Davis worked with the Black Panther Party through her involvement in the civil rights movement, and emerged as a leader of the Communist Party during the 1960s. She also founded Critical Resistance, an organization aimed at abolishing the prison-industrial complex. She was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List under false charges, and after 16 months of being incarcerated and an international “Free Angela Davis” campaign, she was acquitted in 1972.
“Forty years ago, we never could’ve imagined struggling for the same issues,” she said on Thursday morning.
Adorned with a black shirt and her recognizable afro, the Birmingham, Ala., native and retired California educator started her morning in the Harding Mott University Center, where she spoke to about 300 students in a question-and-answer session. She then went to the University of Michigan-Flint Theatre, where she gave a lecture to a standing-room-only crowd of about 450 people. After each event, people met Davis and got copies of her book autographed.
Davis spoke against the death penalty and why she wants to abolish the prison system, said that anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate is just as important to tackle as anti-black racism, mentioned how feminism should be used as part of the overall struggle for equality, and said it’s time for a new educational system.
“The education that we have now is so repressive. It’s an education that has come to replicate the process of imprisonment,” Davis said, adding that children aren’t naturally going to sit in one place without moving. “We need to get rid of this educational system. We need to build something new that makes kids take pleasure in learning. Education should allow kids to be different.”
For the full article, see William E. Ketchum III, “Angela Davis speaks civil rights, anti-Muslim discrimination, and police brutality during UM-Flint visit”, MLive, February 19, 2015.
President Biden is in Portage, Michigan, where he is visiting one of the three manufacturing plants where Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is produced, according the White House. Governor Whitmer accompanied him on the tour.
The President is touring the facility and meeting with workers who are helping manufacture the vaccine. Biden will then deliver remarks.
Pfizer’s vaccine won the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization in December, and is being delivered to millions of people in the US and UK.
Both vaccines on the US market — developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — require two doses to reach about 95% efficacy, and the second doses were intended to be administered 21 days and 28 days after the first, respectively.