Story:
My paternal grandmother (sitting down, wearing a pink dress and holding one of my uncles), great-grandmother (on the left), and great-great-grandmother (on the right) are from Birmingham, Alabama. They migrated to Detroit in the 1940s—my paternal family has resided in Detroit and the surrounding metro areas ever since. Over the years, I’ve been told that I resemble my grandmother (the woman in the pink dress) and that I even walk like her—feminine and ladylike. That comparison is especially meaningful because she passed away when I was a baby, and I have no recollection of her. This hand-painted photograph was taken in Detroit, Michigan, on May 11, 1947, at Modernistic Studio (which no longer exists) on Hastings Street.

Submitted by: Rachel Elise Thomas

Connect: @rachel.elise.thomas