In 1921, the Colored Welfare League bought the building. In a 1978 interview, John Ragland (1905-1981), lawyer for the CWL and sometime tenant of the building, recalled how the purchase came about. "In World War I, black men called into the army felt they were not getting the same recognition accorded to white recruits," recalled Ragland, a 1938 U-M law grad who was for a time the only black lawyer in town. "A group of local black leaders therefore raised money for send-off parties. When the war ended, the money left was used to purchase 209-211 North Fourth."
The Ann Arbor Community Center descends from the Colored Welfare League, a self-help organization created by the Rev. Ralph Gilbert and a group of Ann Arbor black leaders in 1918. In the mid-1920s, the CWL's youth clubs spun off into a new organization--the Dunbar Center--focused specifically on providing services for young people.
