Emma Lee (Davis) McCarty from the collection of Black Artists Archive

Emma Lee McCarty, c. 1950

Emma Lee (Davis) McCarty, c. 1948-1950

paper

Inv: 2026.012

This photograph depicts Emma Lee McCarty, in a white top, standing in the backyard of the family’s second residence on Horton Street in Detroit. After arriving in Detroit in the 1930s as part of the Great Migration, Emma and her husband, Foy McCarty, initially lived communally with Foy’s parents, Rachel and Edward McCarty, reflecting the shared domestic arrangements common among Black families navigating migration and economic transition.

Edward McCarty—affectionately known as “Grandpa Ed” or “Poppa”—had purchased a three-story home at 260 Horton Street to house the extended family. However, due to missed mortgage payments, the family lost the property and subsequently relocated further down the street to 655 Horton Street, where this photograph was taken. Emma is pictured here in the backyard of that home, a space that speaks to both the instability and resilience that shaped Black homeownership and family life in mid-20th-century Detroit.

Preserved within the Foy and Emma Lee McCarty Collection, this image offers an intimate view of Black domestic life during a period marked by economic vulnerability, shifting household structures, and the ongoing pursuit of stability in a racially stratified city.