Detroit, MI
Reaching Michigan Central Station was first step to a ‘good life’ for longtime Detroiter
As a teen living in the South, the future Bernice Laster chose Detroit to be her home. More than 70 years later, Laster is still happy with her choice and grateful for a special place in Corktown.
Michigan Central Station: Public tours begin at Detroit’s iconic train depot
Michigan Central Station: Public tours begin at Detroit’s iconic train depot
Detroit Free Press
The year was 1951. And in Macon, Georgia, an excited group of students were celebrating their graduation from Ballard-Hudson Senior High School, an institution designed by pioneering architect Ellamae Ellis League.
Among the proud graduates was an 18-year-old student who had traveled the country a bit as a child thanks to the train passes issued by Central of Georgia Railway — her father’s employer. This student had already designed her own life plan, which entailed leaving the South behind for a northern destination more than 800 miles away.
That student — known then by her maiden name, Bernice Farmer — is Bernice Laster today. And the chosen city up north that the daughter of Perry and Willie May Wembley Farmer set her sights on moving to, even prior to her high school graduation, was Detroit.
“I was born in the South, but I wanted to go to school and receive the training and skills that would allow me to be an entrepreneur, or pursue some other job that was not domestic work,” said the now 91-year-old Laster, who was encouraged to move to Detroit to attend Wayne (now Wayne State) University by her history teacher at Ballard-Hudson which back then had an all-Black student body due to forced segregation. “In the South, as a Black woman, even with training, you were not going to get opportunities because all of the store jobs and government jobs, and any kind of jobs, went to privileged white women. But my mother and grandmother instilled in me to want more in life, so I was glad to leave home for an opportunity to try to give myself a better life in Detroit.”
However, before Laster could begin executing her plan, she first needed to make her way from the Macon, Georgia, train terminal to an imposing location in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood that once housed a three-story depot with 10 gates for trains, connected to an 18-story tower with more than 500 offices.
“I remember walking through that station; buildings like that you didn’t see everywhere,” Laster regaled as she recalled her earliest thoughts about the Michigan Central Station, Detroit’s primary railway depot from 1913 to 1988, and a onetime gateway to Detroit for thousands of daily rail passengers from across the country. “I was excited when that train stopped in Detroit. But as Black people living during those times, we didn’t carry ourselves in public just any kind of way as we do now. Everywhere you went, you were always concerned about your safety.”
Laster’s statement reflects the views of someone whose early life experiences were shaped not only by a segregated society, but also by the violence that came with it. The violent treatment of Black people in the South often had a lasting impact on future generations, such as the infamous July 25, 1946, Moore’s Ford lynchings, described by some as “the last mass lynching in America,” which resulted in the killing of two Black married couples — George W. (a World War II veteran) and Mae Murray Dorsey, along with Roger and Dorothy Murray (in her seventh month of pregnancy) — by a white mob at Moore’s Ford Bridge in Walton County, Georgia, about 80 miles north of where Laster grew up.
“You talk about segregation, they knew how to segregate in those days. But despite segregation and all of our struggles connected to it, our mothers still found a way to raise families and educate their children,” said Laster, who spoke Sunday evening from her home in northwest Detroit. “Some of these women even built colleges; and they filled up your belly. My mother and grandmother always saw to it that we had plenty to eat and that was very important. Before we left home, we would have biscuits, grits, salt pork and eggs that they prepared in the morning. That’s how we started every day.”
As Laster tells it, the crammed shoebox containing mouth-watering fried chicken that she took with her on the train while heading north was just a small sampling of the physical, mental and spiritual nourishment she had received from her family, which Laster would need to successfully make a new home in Detroit. For example, when money was needed to continue her education after completing a semester at Wayne, Laster called on lessons she had learned in and around the kitchen back home to secure a job as a cook and a waitress at Bonner’s Kitchen on Davidson and Dequindre. And the money she made at the restaurant helped her pay for classes at Highland Park Community College, where she ultimately earned an associate’s degree. There would be more jobs for Laster, too, including a nurse’s assistant position at Henry Ford Hospital.
Then, in 1964, Laster accomplished something that she believed would have been impossible for her to do had she not boarded a train to Detroit after completing high school: She landed a “good, government job” with the U.S. Postal Service.
“It gave me the opportunity to work and make a living wage,” said Laster, who was hired as a distribution clerk at Detroit’s main post office at 1401 W. Fort St. “That was one of the greatest things that ever happened to us.”
The “us” that Laster was referring to in that instance was the life partnership she shared with the late Ernest Laster, her loving husband for 58 years, and the person who validated Bernice Laster’s decision to come to Detroit in the grandest way possible.
“I was blessed that the Lord sent me someone to love, and the Lord sent me a man who loved me,” Laster, who married Ernest three months before starting work at the post office, beamed. “When we were first getting to know each other, he asked me to ride out to Belle Isle, and who would refuse going out to Belle Isle? From that point on, he just worked everything to perfection.”
And with plenty of love in her life, Laster said it was not difficult for her to work 27 years at the post office, where she retired in 1981 as a mid-level supervisor. After completing her government work, Laster then was able to fully focus on providing service to her community, particularly youths, which she happily performed by teaching Sunday school and vacation Bible school at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church for 18 years.
In recent years, Laster has touched the lives of metro Detroit youths through outreach she has performed with Boys & Girls Bible Clubs and Child Evangelism Fellowship. It is work that Laster still continues today and does not plan to give up anytime soon — however, she confided that she is looking forward to taking a little break. And during that “break” she said she expects to return to a familiar site with a few close friends to take part in the reopening celebration at Michigan Central Station that is taking place through June 16.
“After moving to Detroit, it was always exciting to catch the train to visit family back home, and I’m excited about being invited to go down to the station for the reopening,” said Laster, whose knack for offering encouragement to others throughout her life extended to her husband, who she encouraged to go to law school, which he successfully completed. “The physical strength and energy that God gives you is amazing and I used it to have a good life in Detroit. But nothing we did here in Detroit was us — it was all the Lord.”
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott’s stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
LOS ANGELES — Predictably, the Detroit Red Wings lost the second of their back-to-back outing, outplayed by a well-rested and skilled opponent.
The Los Angeles Kings dispatched the Wings, 4-1, Saturday at Crypto.com Arena, taking advantage and control early. The Wings were never in it, outshot every period to the tune of 41-18 in the end. Dylan Larkin scored with 1:27 to play, his 10th goal of the season.
The loss leaves the Wings (7-9-1) with one last hope left for salvaging some pride on this trip when they wrap things up Monday at the San Jose Sharks. The trip began on a positive note when the Wings quashed the Penguins’ momentum and won in overtime, but took a dive when they failed to do so against the Ducks, blowing a two-goal lead to lose Friday in Anaheim.
Tough 22 seconds
The Wings, having played 22 hours earlier, spent most of the first stretch of the game in their own zone, with Talbot having his hands full. The former Kings goalie was welcomed back with a Jumbotron message during the first timeout. Then the Kings went back to shelling him. They scored at 18:05 when Lucas Raymond’s attempt at a chip pass was picked off and ended with Mikey Anderson’s goal. Just 22 seconds later, they doubled up off an odd-man rush, with Tanner Jeannot scoring at 18:27.
Tilted ice
The Kings, who had been off since Wednesday, showed what good teams do when they have a two-goal lead: Keep up the pressure. They racked up a 15-5 edge in shots in the first period and sustained the attack in the second, keeping Talbot busy by buzzing around his net. The Wings had a harder time making things tough on David Rittich. Alex DeBrincat had one of the better chances when he unleashed a quick shot from the left circle, and Marco Kasper was in on a chance, too, but Rittich saw everything the Wings sent at him. The Kings went ahead, 3-0, when Adrian Kempe converted on a breakaway 15 seconds into the third period, and scored again into an empty net with 49 seconds to play.
Edvinsson unavailable
Simon Edvinsson took warmups but ended up missing the game because he got dinged up Friday blocking a shot. He’s considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury, nothing the team expects to take long to heal. His absence left the Wings with a hole to plug on the top defense pairing. Ben Chiarot slid into the spot, a natural choice given he has played with Seider a great deal in the past. The other lineup change was up front, where an upper-body injury prevented Michael Rasmussen from playing, and Tyler Motte instead made his first appearance in a week.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “The Franchise: Detroit Red Wings, A Curated History of the Red Wings,” was released October 2024. Her books, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” and “The Big 50: The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings” are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.
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Detroit, MI
Detroit Lions a ‘special team’ with a ‘special staff’ says Dan Campbell. He is savoring every moment.
One of the more indelible images during the New England Patriots’ Death Star reign centered on a hug. The immutable and unsparing coach broke into a smile as he wrapped his arms around his offensive and defensive coordinators – Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel.
Coach Bill Belichick had just won his third Super Bowl when cameras caught the emotional embrace, emotional, in large part, because the three coaches knew they were never likely to coach together again.
They were right. They didn’t.
Life in the NFL can be a slog for teams on the rebuild. And then suddenly, it isn’t. Because the rise from the abyss speeds up exponentially at the end.
Savor the rise then, eh?
Dan Campbell is sure trying. Mostly because few things in sports are as thrilling as a team finding its way out of the wilderness. But also, because chemistry is an actual thing and not always a certain thing. He’s got it with his two coordinators, Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson.
So, when you’ve got it … well, it’s best to revel in it for as long as you can. Campbell is most ardently reveling.
He knows it and said so again Friday, that Glenn and Johnson will be head coaches soon. He also knows that if this season ends in a Super Bowl and on a confetti-drenched stage, then no season will ever quite compare, for obvious reasons.
Even if it doesn’t end with a parade, and the Detroit Lions lose before the Super Bowl, that doesn’t minimize what is happening now. Campbell understands this, too:
The 8-1 record. The expectation of winning. The comeback victories and the walk-off victories and the relatively dominant victories.
The Lions are a happening in the football world and they are taking over stadiums near you. Everyone wants to be a part of it.
“Yeah, man,” said Campbell, “I savor every bit of this because you’re not guaranteed – we’re not guaranteed any more wins, as far as that’s concerned.
“You’ve got to earn every one of them and you don’t know what’s going to happen the next day or the next game in front of you. But I know this, this is a special team and it’s a special staff.”
Endings come in a hurry when the going is good. Especially in the NFL, where everyone else wants to steal a piece – or more – of what propelled a team in the first place. And if the rest of the league can’t take your players, then coaches are the next best thing.
Campbell remembers that image of Belichick and his coordinators. Of all that joy and pride and love, but also the undercurrent of melancholy, because they knew that was it.
“It’s a great image and that was a special team,” said Campbell, “that really started it all.”
The New England dynasty, of course, and if Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes have intentions on winning big here, they’ll have to survive moments like that one. Belichick won three more Super Bowls after Crennel and Weis left. Turns out Belichick and Tom Brady were the key, not that anyone didn’t know that at the time.
Still, it’s not easy losing coordinators. Ask Philadelphia, where the coordinators bolted after the Eagles made the 2023 Super Bowl and the Eagles struggled the next season.
Coincidence?
Probably not, but that’s getting ahead of the story, and beyond the point of the story, which is always the same in a season like this one: Drink it in.
Sip it, if you can. Smell it and taste it and do your best to feel this moment, and these Sundays – and Mondays and Thursdays – and remember that games like Sundays against the Texans, for example, don’t come around often.
Or ever.
In fact, no team since the 70s had won coming from two touchdowns down having thrown five interceptions. As Campbell said late Sunday night – or early Monday morning – that says something. Says a lot, actually.
About the grit and character of the team, obviously. But also, about the unseen and unknowable forces at work that make a win like that possible.
Magic? Karma? Fate?
Hey, something is happening when two field goals brush the inside paint on the uprights.
Whatever the reason, it is reason to embrace every moment of this ride, one that’s more than 60 years in the making, that took a lifetime to get here and could be gone in a flash.
So, yeah, Campbell and Glenn and Johnson are savoring every meeting, and every practice, and every day, and every game. And they are savoring the time with each other.
“Because those guys are going to be head coaches eventually, whether it’s now, whether it’s later,” Campbell said.
It’s only a matter of time. And in the meantime?
Campbell will keep telling himself this: “I’m fortunate, I’m blessed, I’m thankful that I have the coordinators − counting (Lions Special Teams Coordinator Dave) Fipp as well − (and) all three of those guys are superstars. And yeah … I know (that) hey, when it’s over, it’s over. But we’re going to make the most of it until that time comes.”
Everyone else who loves this team probably should, too. For what makes this feel so special is that it comes after so much heartache.
And that usually only comes once in a lifetime as well.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
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