Jones School was an anchor of Ann Arbor’s historically Black neighborhood (what is now Kerrytown) from the early twentieth century until 1965. Many living Ann Arbor residents remember attending Jones School during the Civil Rights Era. In 1964 the Ann Arbor Board of Education acknowledged that, with over 75% Black students, Jones was a “de facto” segregated school. Jones School closed in 1965, and several years later the building reopened as Community High School.

Peggy Jenny Winick was born in 1920 to Russian immigrant parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her father, George Winick, worked in the metal industry. Following the Great Depression, she worked part-time to help rebuild the family’s livelihood. In 1945 she married Gerritt W. de Vries and they moved to Ann Arbor so that he could attend the University of Michigan School of Architecture & Design. Peggy worked in photo finishing and printing at Ivory Photo. The de Vries had three children, and they retired in Lake Leelanau.

Shirley (Rusty) Schumacher was born in 1930 in Detroit. She remembers war bonds, scrap drives, and special manufacturing during World War II. She attended William and Mary College and received two master’s degrees in speech and education from the University of Michigan. Schumacher spent most of her career as a teacher at Clague Middle School. In 1985 she founded a student exchange program with Ann Arbor’s sister city, Hikone, Japan. She led a year-long stay there in 1992-93.