After decades of fostering African American life in Minneapolis, three historic sites are one step closer to national recognition, which will be determined in early 2027.
The city of Minneapolis announced in September it would nominate three sites to the National Register of Historic Places. The nominated sites are: the former home of Harry Davis Sr., the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center and the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.
The nominations stem from years of research culminating in an African American Historic and Cultural Context Study. They were selected by 15 city-appointed African American Heritage Work Group community members, said Erin Que, project manager and Minneapolis senior city planner.
Harry Davis Sr.
Harry Davis Sr. was a boxing coach, a civil rights leader and the city’s first African American candidate for mayor. He and his family moved to South Minneapolis in 1955 and their home is now up for nomination, his son, Davis Jr. said.
The nomination of the home reflects his father’s accomplishments and the community that supported him, Davis Jr. said.
LaJune Lange, a longtime family friend, said at the time, South Minneapolis was emerging as an important hub for economic and social development.
Davis Jr. said many of the businesses in the neighborhood were African American-owned.
“We saw the result of working together as an economic opportunity for change,” Davis Jr. said. “We saw the changes from our school systems all the way up to the businesses that serviced our parents and our community.”
Davis Sr. coached boxing at Phyllis Wheatley for seventeen years. He stressed the importance of education, and partnered with school systems, counselors and probation officers, Davis Jr. said.
Lange said some young men faced with incarceration got second chances through Davis Sr. and Wheatley’s programs. She said Davis Sr. was not just personally successful but touched the lives of people in the community.
“He reached down, lifted up, educated and prepared others to lead and thrive,” Lange said.
Davis Sr. chaired the Urban Coalition, a group of businesses and community members formed to address social and economic issues in the 1960s.
Lange said the group also invited young people to conferences. She added the group widened her perspective and skills, eventually helping her to become a paralegal and attend law school.
Davis Sr. joined the school board and ran for Minneapolis mayor in 1969. His son said his father always practiced what he preached.
“People will ask me, ‘Was he as kind and as loving, as warm and even-tempered at home, even when he wasn’t out in the community?’ Absolutely,” Davis Jr. said.
Davis Jr. said when he thinks of his childhood home, he remembers a perfect grass lawn and going with his dad to the Sears and Roebuck on Lake Street to buy a lawn mower. It was the first home the family owned, he added.
“I was going to cut my front lawn,” Davis Jr. said. “That was quite the accomplishment.”
The nomination ended a long journey, according to Davis Jr.. He said he went from being a little boy excited to mow the family’s lawn to now driving past the house and seeing the beautiful condition the next owners kept it in.
“My parents have passed on,” Davis Jr. said. “But they’ll know through the spirit that this was done for them.”
The Phyllis Wheatley Community Center
The center, located in North Minneapolis, recently celebrated 100 years of providing services and programs to the community.
Lange said the community center was founded by a group of African American women who realized social services were needed due to the level of segregation.
“Phyllis Wheatley was created so that there would be a total gaze on the Black community,” Lange said. “From the cradle to the grave, help them not just cycle into living in poor conditions, but be able to thrive and move out of those conditions and help others.”
Kendra Ellner, a member of the African American Heritage Work Group, said the woman-founded center stuck out to her.
“In a time when they had no space, they found their way, they found the funding, the place and managed it,” Ellner said.
The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Cecil Newman, founder of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City in 1922, seeking to start a newspaper in a less prejudiced north, according to his granddaughter, current MSR CEO and publisher, Tracey Williams-Dillard.
Williams-Dillard said the first restaurant Newman visited in Minneapolis served him a hamburger loaded with salt.
“It was letting him know that he was not welcome in that restaurant; he knew then that there was still much work to be done,” Williams-Dillard said.
Newman founded two papers in the 1930s, which later merged into MSR. Nearly 100 years later, MSR remains in his family. After Newman died in 1976, his wife Launa Q. Newman, took over the paper until 2007, when Williams-Dillard assumed the role.
“He knew he still had to open a lot of doors for the readers, for the community, and he did,” Williams-Dillard said. “He spoke of the injustice going on, told the stories that no one else was telling.”
MSR drills into the impacts of news on African Americans and Minneapolis communities, Williams-Dillard said.
“When it comes to the African American community, they can get news that they wouldn’t read or see anywhere else,” Williams-Dillard said. “The need for the MSR to exist is beyond a need; it’s a must, it’s a have to be here.”
Williams-Dillard said if the city wants to put the paper on a national stage, it speaks volumes to the work MSR is doing.
“We put information out that no matter what ethnicity you are, it’s stories that you need to know about,” Williams-Dillard said.
What’s Next
Seventeen sites in the study were found eligible for local landmark designation or a listing in the National Register of Historic Places, Que said. She said the sites may be nominated in the future, but it will take time and depend on the property owners’ interest to make that step.
The workgroup wants to build off the study and keep exploring community stories, Ellner said.
“I’m just so grateful that the city of Minneapolis took the opportunity to offer the community the chance to talk about their story and make sure that it was written down,” Ellner said. “It is important that history is written by the people it is about.”
