As a teenager in the South, a train user chose Detroit to live

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 5 minutes read

The year was 1951. And in Macon, Georgia, a group of enthusiastic students were celebrating their graduation from Ballard-Hudson High School, an institution designed by pioneering architect Ellamae Ellis League.

Among the proud graduates was an 18-year-old student who had traveled the country as a child on train passes issued by the Central of Georgia Railway, her father's employer. This student had already designed her own life plan, which involved leaving the South for a northern destination located more than 800 miles away.

This student – known then by her maiden name, Bernice Farmer – is today Bernice Laster. And the chosen northern city where Perry and Willie May Wembley Farmer's daughter had decided to move, even before she graduated from high school, was Detroit.

“I was born in the South, but I wanted to go to school and get the training and skills that would allow me to become an entrepreneur or do another job that wasn't domestic work,” the woman said now aged 91. Laster, who was encouraged to move to Detroit to attend Wayne University (now Wayne State) by her history professor at Ballard-Hudson which, at the time, had an all-black student body due to forced segregation . “In the South, as a black woman, even with an education, you wouldn't have opportunities because all the store jobs and government jobs, and any type of jobs, went to white women privileged. But my mother and grandmother inspired me to want more in life, so I was happy to leave home for the opportunity to try to make a better life in Detroit.

However, before Laster could begin executing her plan, she first had to travel from the rail terminal in Macon, Georgia, to an imposing location in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood that once housed a three-story depot with 10 gates for trains, connected to an 18-story tower with more than 500 offices.

“I remember passing through this station; buildings like these that you don't see everywhere,” Laster rejoiced as he recalled his first thoughts about Michigan Central Station, Detroit's main rail depot from 1913 to 1988, and an ancient gateway to Detroit for thousands of daily rail passengers from all over the country. . “I was excited when that train stopped in Detroit. But as black people living in that era, we didn't behave in public the way we do today. Everywhere you went, you were always concerned about your safety.

Laster's statement reflects the perspective of someone whose early life experiences were shaped not only by a segregated society, but also by the violence that accompanied it. The violent treatment of black people in the South often had a lasting impact on future generations, such as the infamous lynching of Moore at Ford on July 25, 1946, described by some as “the last mass lynching in America”, which led to the death of several people. two black married couples – George W. (a World War II veteran) and Mae Murray Dorsey, and Roger and Dorothy Murray (in her seventh month of pregnancy) – by a white mob at Moore's Ford Bridge in Walton County , Georgia, about 80 miles north of where Laster grew up.

“You talk about segregation, they knew how to segregate at that time. But despite segregation and all of our struggles related to it, our mothers still found a way to raise a family and educate their children,” said Laster, who spoke Sunday evening from her home in North Carolina. west of Detroit. “Some of these women even built colleges; and they filled your belly. My mother and grandmother always made sure we had enough to eat and that was very important. Before we left the house we ate biscuits, grits, salt pork and eggs that they made in the morning. This is how we started each day.

As Laster tells it, the overflowing shoebox of mouth-watering fried chicken that she took with her on the train as she headed north was just a small sample of the physical, mental nourishment and spirituality that she had received from her family, which Laster would need to successfully build a new home in Detroit. For example, when she needed money to continue her education after completing a semester at Wayne, Laster used the lessons she had learned in and around the kitchen at home to get a job as a cook and as a waitress at Bonner's Kitchen on Davidson and Dequindre. And the money she made at the restaurant helped pay for her classes at Highland Park Community College, where she eventually earned an associate's degree. There would also be more jobs for Laster, including a position as a nursing assistant at Henry Ford Hospital.

Then, in 1964, Laster accomplished something she said would have been impossible had she not taken the train to Detroit after finishing high school: she landed a “good government job” in the service. US Postal Service.

“It gave me the opportunity to work and earn a living,” said Laster, who was hired as a distribution clerk at Detroit's main post office at 1401 W. Fort St. “It's one of the greatest things that has ever happened to us.”

The “we” Laster was referring to in this instance was the life partnership she shared with the late Ernest Laster, her beloved husband of 58 years, and the person who validated Bernice Laster's decision to come to Detroit from in the grandest way possible.

“I was blessed that the Lord sent me someone to love, and the Lord sent me a man who loved me,” beamed Laster, who married Ernest three months before starting work at the post office. “When we first met, he asked me to go to Belle Isle, and who wouldn't want to go out to Belle Isle? From that moment on, he worked everything to perfection.

And with plenty of love in her life, Laster said it wasn't hard for her to work 27 years at the post office, where she retired in 1981 as a mid-level supervisor. After completing her government work, Laster was then able to fully concentrate on serving her community, especially young people, which she happily accomplished by teaching Sunday School and Vacation Bible School at the Hartford Memorial Baptist Church for 18 years.

In recent years, Laster has touched the lives of young people in the Metro Detroit area through outreach she has done with Boys & Girls Bible Clubs and Child Evangelism Fellowship. It's a job that Laster continues to this day and has no plans to give up any time soon – however, she said she's looking forward to taking a little break. And during this “break,” she said she hopes to return to a familiar site with a few close friends to take part in the Michigan Central Station reopening celebration that runs through June 16.

“After moving to Detroit, it was always exciting to take the train to visit my family back home, and I am thrilled to be invited to get off at the station for the reopening,” said Laster, whose her talent for encouraging others throughout her life extends to her husband, whom she encourages to attend law school, which he successfully completes. “The physical strength and energy that God gives you is incredible and I have used it to live a great life in Detroit. But nothing we did here in Detroit was us – it was all the Lord.

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its various forms. On his second tour with the Free Press, which he read as a child, he is excited and honored to cover the city's neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us develop quality community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.

Lina Portman

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