From Abu Simbel to Brewster-Douglass Homes

Part 3 of 13 in our journey from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
(connecting landmarks in Michigan and African history)

Brewster High-Rise
under construction

During the 1930s, the US was deep within the grip of the Great Depression. And for African-Americans living in Detroit, the effects were most severe. Jim Crow laws limited where they could live, and migration of African-Americans from the south exacerbated overcrowded living conditions.

The Supremes at
Brewster-Douglass

Eleanor Roosevelt, deeply affected by her firsthand experience of New York City’s tenement slums, and a lifetime advocate of African-American civil rights, came to Detroit to break ground on the first publicly funded housing development dedicated to African-Americans (Jefferies Homes further west was built for whites).

Vacant Brewster Homes

Begun in 1935 and completed over the next two decades, Brewster-Douglass Homes would surge to between 8,000-10,000 residents. Counted among its famous residents are: Dianna Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, Lily Tomlin and Smokey Robinson. As part of an expansion in 1952, ground was broken on six 14-story high-rise

Vacant Brewster High-Rises

apartment buildings. Today, the project is partially abandoned. Half reborn in the 1990s as the new Brewster Homes. The other half left vacant, best recognized by four of the remaining high rise towers that loom over an equally vacant site.

But in 1935, Eleanor Roosevelt’s action continued a tradition of first ladies fighting for causes alongside their Presidential husbands. The list of causes is long and includes Lady Bird Johnson’s pioneering environmental protection, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s healthcare system reforms and Michelle Obama’s fight against childhood obesity.

Painting of Nefertari

Thousands of years earlier, another first lady aided her husband’s rule over one of the world’s greatest empires. Ramses II ruled Egypt from 1279 BC – 1213 BC. By his side ruled one of the best known Egyptian queens, Nefertari. And though we may not know the specific details of her contributions, it is clear that she played a significant role in both state and religious

Nefertari with Ramses II at both sides

affairs. Her importance is reflected in her titles: “The One for Whom the Sun Shines”, “The Lady of all the Lands”, “The Great King’s Wife” and “The Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt”. She is known to have corresponded with and offered gifts to the Queen of the Hittites, Egypt’s rival to the north. A people with whom Ramses II would carve in stone what is the world’s oldest surviving international peace treaty.  Though she would give the king 10 of his 100+ children, it would be the child of one his other wives that would eventually succeed him.

Approaching Abu Simbel
 from Lake Nasser

At Abu Simbel, her influence is forever carved in stone. She is the only queen whose statue stands equal to Ramses II. Rising over Egypt’s southern border, it served as a warning of Egypt’s power to its enemies. And like the Taj Mahal built some 2500 years later, it also serves as a display of Ramses II’s love for his favorite wife.

The interior of Nefertari's Temple

Discovered in 1814 near today’s border between Egypt and Sudan, it is composed of two temples. The first is a cliff temple where four 60 foot high statues of Ramses II decorate its façade. Inside, some 14 rooms penetrate almost 200 feet back into solid rock. Five hundred feet away a second temple is dedicated to Nefertari. Within its façade also are carved colossal statues of Ramses II and Nefertari rising some 30 feet into the sky.

Because of threats from flooding due to the construction of Aswan Dam on Lake Nasser, the entire complex between 1963 and 1968 was sawed out of rock, and reassembled some 200 feet higher. The construction feat would rival the engineering of the original structure. The success of the project allows one of the greatest queens of Egypt to continue to live forever at Abu Simbel.