On January 28, 1863, as a response to the Emancipation Proclamation and the raising of Black troops in the North, Michigan’s African-American men, including leading national figures like Martin Delaney, George DeBaptiste and William Whipper met in Ypsilanti to demand, before African-Americans would participate in the war, that the word “white” be removed from the state constitution.
Source : South Adams Street circa 1900,