(Photo Credit: Ann Arbor District Library)
By Ryan Makuch
This Black History Month, AFC Ann Arbor want to take time to shine light on those involved in Black History within our community and our club. We will be featuring members of either the AFC Ann Arbor Family or the Ann Arbor-community each week in an attempt to celebrate the accomplishments of each of these men and women.
Rosemarion Blake would leave a lasting impact on the city of Ann Arbor through her work. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1923, the then-Rosemarion Alexander lived primarily with her grandparents in her infancy before ultimately getting adopted by her great aunt and uncle who lived in Ann Arbor. She would attend elementary school in the city before moving onward to Ann Arbor High School, graduating in 1941.
One of the first jobs Rosemarion had upon her graduation was running the elevator in the First National Building on Main Street. Rosemarion, in an interview with the Ann Arbor District Library, remembers the conversation with her mother upon becoming the elevator operator: “I announced to my mother, I'm not going to school, I'm going to run the elevator.” Her mother’s reaction was not exactly positive, as Rosemarion explained, “She was very upset with me, needless to say. But, well, I did it.”
In 1945, one of Rosemarion’s lasting impacts would occur when she was hired by Bill Vernor, the Ann Arbor city treasurer at the time, to serve as a clerk in his office. With this hiring, Rosemarion would become the first Black woman to work in the Ann Arbor City Hall in a non-custodial position. While serving in this position, she would also get married in 1949 to her high school sweetheart Robert (this being where she would take on the surname of ‘Blake’), a fellow influential member of Ann Arbor’s history and the man who the Blake Transit Center in downtown Ann Arbor is named after.
Rosemarion would leave this position at city hall in 1952 and would take up a position at Bob Marshall’s Book Shop, which she held for over 17 years while starting her own family. She had her eldest son in 1951 and two more in the four years that followed. Rosemarion would stay in her position until Bob Marshall’s closed in 1970.
While working at Bob Marshall’s, Rosemarion would begin her introduction into the political realm, starting in 1958 where she served as one of 22 citizens on a 28-person panel advising city council on urban renewal. In 1961, she would serve as the coordinator of campaign activities for Lynn W. Eley, a candidate for Ann Arbor’s City Council—an election in which Eley would win.
Rosemarion would continue to ascend further and further the local political ladder, and would ultimately serve as secretary for the Washtenaw County Democratic Party while also serving as a delegate at the Michigan Democratic Party Convention during the late-1960s. This would serve as a precursor for her largest role as in 1967 she would be elected as the chairman for the Ann Arbor City Democratic Party.
During this eventful time in American history, with the start of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement in full effect, Rosemarion was a woman who led by action, as she had protested previously at Ann Arbor’s city hall and was an activist for civil rights in this area. Just six days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosemarion sent a direct telegram to then-President Lyndon B. Johnson where she called for him to support jobs, homes, education, among other rights, for the poor in America that Dr. King fought for.
In the latter half of her career, Rosemarion would become more and more involved with the historical aspects of Ann Arbor and remains one of the most important historians in the history of the city. She was elected as chair of the Ann Arbor Historic District Commission in 1985, and president of the Ann Arbor Historical Foundation in 1991. She would eventually serve on the Washtenaw County Historical Society’s board, and would also become chairwoman of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, an organization that her husband Robert was also a part of.
Rosemarion Blake would pass away in 2015 here in Ann Arbor. She was, and still is, a true symbol of the best of Ann Arbor. Her activity in local politics, her willingness to help preserve the history of this area, and her copious amounts of volunteer work made her a treasured member of the community whose work and life still live on to this day.