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WDET and the Detroit Evening Report have collected Black History Month stories from listeners as a part of its Black History Listening Project.

Here are the stories we aired in February 2025:

Wyatt Tate made headlines in 1894

Detroiter Brenda McGadney grew up hearing stories about her great-grandfather.

Wyatt Tate, a farmer from Alabama, was made infamous after an incident with police arising from an animal being stolen from him while he was away on a business trip. After Tate successfully retrieved the animal, the town sheriff accused him of theft, and during his attempted arrest, Tate killed the sheriff, an assistant and one of the sheriff’s horses. After going on the run and evading police for months, Tate was eventually killed on May 12, 1894. 

Using the internet and genealogical tools for research, McGadney found the story was a very big deal at the time.

“He is documented in more than 80 newspapers in 1894,” she said. “So, it went viral.”

McGadney says growing up, it was important to her mother, Annie Tate McGadney, that they knew of Tate’s story. She had learned it from her own father, Felix Tate, who witnessed the events in 1894.

“My mother brought us up to speak up, not only for yourself, but for other people who are disenfranchised, who you see are being harmed,” she said.

McGadney also found references to Wyatt Tate in Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and in books about Lee who grew up in Monroeville. A cousin, actor and boxer Bill Tate, wrote a fictionalized account, “Little Wyatt Tate: Fiction Based on Fact.”

“When you travel in Africa, the question that Africans ask you, ‘Where do you come from?’” McGadney says, “I tell them that is a very painful question to ask an African American, and they don’t really understand it. We don’t know where we came from.”

McGadney says she has become her family’s griot, holding the stories of both sides of her family.

“This history is rich, and it covers both my mom’s side, which would be the Tates and the Clarks, and my dad’s side, which would be the Baldwins and the Jacksons and the McGadneys,” she said. “You need to be telling your story, and it empowers your children. It empowers our family.”

Iola Corbett witnessed the rise of Detroit’s Muslim community

Iola Corbett, also known as Sister Ameeda, was born and raised in Detroit.

Corbett’s family was a part of the Nation of Islam when she was a child.

Over the years she met Malcolm X, who visited her family’s restaurant in Detroit often.

“My mother was an excellent cook, so he had dinner with my dad every day, so I got to hear him, and I would serve him. He was a big influence in my family’s life,” she said.

Corbett says the Nation of Islam made her a part of something bigger.

“It…gave me a purpose of who I was, who I wanted to be…close with my community,” she explained.

Corbett would go on to become a union leader and to write the book  “Growing Up Muslim and the Journey Continues.”

Carolyn Clifford tells her mom’s story

WXYZ TV reporter and anchor Carolyn Clifford tells the story of her mother often. She says she wants to inspire women dealing with domestic violence to leave, and to prove to children in Detroit that they can succeed despite hardship.

“I always tell Detroiters, especially young kids, when you see me, you see you,” Clifford said. “ So if your mom was on drugs, or your daddy on drugs, or, you know, somebody’s drinking alcohol…don’t be ashamed. There’s always a way out of a crazy situation, as I learned from my own mom.”

“And she would always say, you know, with God on her side, she could do anything.”

Bruce Simpson remembers Barbara-Rose Collins

Bruce Simpson’s grandmother was the first Black woman to represent Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives. Barbara-Rose Collins served in Congress from 1991 to 1997. She also worked in politics at the city and state level.

But Simpson says he wasn’t really aware that Collins was the “distinguished lady from Michigan.”

“I always just looked at her as grandma,” Simpson said.

Simpson has also entered public service. He is the Ombudsman for the City of Detroit.

WDET listeners are invited to share Black history stories about their families, friends and neighbors throughout the year via email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org or by leaving us a voice memo in the WDET mobile app.

As WDET celebrated the end of its 75th year last Thursday, News Director Jerome Vaughn unveiled an audio history project that commemorates the station’s history and longstanding dedication to public news that serves Detroit.

“Having worked at WDET for more than half my life, I thought it was an amazing opportunity to dig into the history of the station and tell the rest of the world about how this amazing radio station got started,” said Vaughn, who narrates the audio history.

WDET was first created to share news and updates on the labor movement as one of several broadcasting stations managed by the United Auto Workers union. It aired its first broadcast on Feb. 13, 1949. The station strived to diversify its programming from the start, covering news relevant to working people, sharing music, and even broadcasting in other languages to better serve various populations in the area.

But running a nonprofit station demanded more resources than the UAW saw fit to spend. In 1952, the UAW transferred ownership of the station to Wayne State University, with the condition that the station would continue to use its broadcasting license to serve the public.

Watch the presentation below and take a journey through the first years of WDET’s existence, featuring historical photographs, logos, and newspaper clippings provided by Walter P. Reuther Library Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs.

Special thanks to the Walter and May Reuther Memorial Fund for funding this project.