On October 29, 1920, temperatures in Detroit reached a high of 60 degrees, and the Detroit Free Press reported that “Northwestern High’s football eleven” was preparing to meet Eastern High School the next day for a highly anticipated Saturday game at the Joyce . athletic field.
Julia Esaw had not yet arrived in Detroit to enjoy the game and the pleasant weather, but the longtime member of the People’s Community Church was born on that day – more than 100 years ago.
And last Tuesday, October 29, the same Julia Esaw celebrated her 104th birthday in Detroit.
“If you could see my face right now, you’d see a big smile,” Esaw announced by phone at 3:27 p.m. on her birthday, a day that was appropriately even warmer in Detroit than the day she was born.
Asking the exuberant centenarian to make another FaceTime call so her beautiful smile could be seen wasn’t an option. That’s because Esaw was in a hurry to quickly soak up the sunshine and 76-degree heat that was currently radiating from her home in Detroit, not far from her beloved People’s Community Church – 8601 Woodward Ave. – before she was whisked away to a secret location for a family birthday.
A 104th birthday is rare. But Esaw says she expected good experiences in Detroit very early in her life.
“Detroit has a lot to offer and I have no complaints,” said the 1939 Cass Tech graduate, who came to Detroit with her family from Columbia, Mississippi, at age 2.
On the afternoon of Monday, October 8, Esaw with vivid memories scanned some of the early streets of Detroit where she lived, including High Street, Division, Brewster, Hedge, Trowbridge and Taylor. However, it was a discussion about a destination Esaw recently visited that set off an excited tone just over eight hours before her birthday. That destination is 2978 West Grand Blvd., home of the Detroit Department of Elections, where Esaw dropped off her absentee ballot with a vote cast in the 2024 presidential election for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. And Esaw left no doubt that even with all the history she’s seen in her long life, the chance to cast her vote for Harris — the first Black woman to lead a major party’s presidential campaign — was a special one. occupies a place in her heart.
“I’m happy and it gives me a great feeling!” declared Esaw, who was born just 72 days after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which legally guaranteed women the right to vote.
Esaw then explained that her happiness this election season is tied to the progress she has witnessed in her lifetime.
“After high school I wanted to become a dietitian. But as a young black woman, I had nowhere to go to get the education here and my mother didn’t want me to leave,” lamented Esaw, who says she remains indebted to two “tough” teachers in Cass Tech’s home economics curriculum who prepared her well for life. “The blacks didn’t have the same kind of power that we have today. But if we all come together now, we can put her (Harris) in the top seat.
Although Esaw was unable to pursue a career in healthcare, her journey as an esthetician actually began in close physical proximity to a prominent Detroit healthcare facility.
“I started as an esthetician at the Streamline Beauty Shop in Forest and it was right across from Women’s Hospital (now Hutzel Women’s Hospital),” said Esaw, who was married to the late Tuskegee Airman Burkes Esaw Sr. “Because we were so close to the hospital, I had more white business (clientele) than black. That was the same for years when I ran my own store.”
In the roles Esaw held as a beautician, block club president, wife and mother of four children who were taught at home to value education and healthy eating, she said race was not a barrier to success. But Esaw’s memory of a revered Detroit landmark — the old JL Hudson department store downtown — may be a little different than what’s in many history books. Esaw explained that there was a time when the shopping experience for black customers at JL Hudson, which rose to become the tallest department store in the world during its heyday, was largely relegated to the basement because of a Northern version of Jim Crow.
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Esaw’s earliest memories of Hudson’s were shared without a hint of bitterness in her voice and with a small chuckle, because, as Esaw further explained, she never accepted a “basement” view of life because of her faith. And because of her faith, Esaw says the fact that a black woman (Harris is also of Southeast Asian descent on her mother’s side) has a very legitimate shot at becoming the country’s first female president isn’t really a huge surprise to her.
“I was always taught that we (black people) are also God’s children,” says Esaw, who notes that she starts every morning with a bowl of assorted raw fruits that she prepares for herself. ‘God made us and we are someone too. And we can do anything anyone else can do, including being president.”
And in an equally succinct manner, Esaw laid out what she would expect from Harris as president.
“I want her to reach out and touch everyone, because we are all God’s children,” Esaw said. “And then I would like to see us all working together as a team.”
Standing next to Esaw as she spoke from home on consecutive afternoons beginning Oct. 28 was her only daughter and constant companion, 72-year-old Berneta Esaw, a retired math teacher at the Detroit Public Schools. Berneta Esaw was with her mother when she dropped off her election ballot, and she was also at her mother’s side on October 12 at the Detroit Golf Club when Berneta Esaw’s Cass Tech graduating class of 1969 held its 55th reunion, which Julia Esaw used as an opportunity to celebrate the 85th anniversary of her own graduation from Cass.
Berneta Esaw says she hopes other living people who graduated from Cass Tech in or around 1939 will come forward so her mother can fully enjoy a reunion experience. But in the meantime, Berneta Esaw is happy to share lessons for a long, fulfilling life – which she lovingly received straight from her mother.
“Mom doesn’t look anywhere near 90; most people start at 70 when they ask how old they think she is. But she worked hard to look like this,” says Berneta Esaw, who has become accustomed and accepted by people who want to hug and touch her mother when they become aware of Julia Esaw’s age. “If you lived with mom, you knew you would have fruit in the morning, and salad for lunch and dinner, because mom knows that when you eat fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, the body works better.
“Mother is a blessing, and I feel blessed to have been born to two parents who were extremely knowledgeable and intelligent, and they happily passed on their knowledge to my siblings and me, and others in our community.”
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its various forms. On his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up with as a child, he talks enthusiastically and humbly about the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define the different communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more stories from Scott at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 104-year-old Detroit resident Julia Esaw voted for Kamala Harris
