This is the seventh of my posts based on a recent tour of the eastern half of the USA. I visited a number of sites relevant to African American history. To mark Black History Month, I am relating some of the things I saw, in the order I saw them.

When I started planning my US trip, I had two items high on my bucket list which I wanted to tick. One was the Rosa Parks museum (of which more later in this series) and the other was the Motown museum in Detroit. I was extremely excited to visit the home of Tamla Motown. I made a major 3000 mile detour in my trip just to do it! And I was not disappointed. I have still not completely calmed down from my excitement three weeks after visiting it!

For those readers who are not familiar with Motown music, here’s what the “Historic Michigan” plaque outside the museum in suburban Detroit says:

The “Motown Sound” was created on this site from 1959 to 1972. The company started with an $800 loan from the savings club of the Bertha and Barry Gordy Sr., family. Originally called Tamla Records, the company’s first national release was “Money (That’s What I Want),” in August 1959. The founder, choosing a name that reflected the Motor City, coined the word “Motown” for the company that was incorporated as the Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. That same year it produced its first gold record, “Shop Around.” In 1968 the company, which had grown from a family-oriented business to an international enterprise, moved its business operations to 2457 Woodward. Motown provided an opportunity for Detroit’s inner-city youth to reach their full potential and become super stars.

By the end of its first decade, Motown was the largest independent manufacturer of single 45 rpm records in the world. Among Motown’s record labels were Tamla, Motown, Gordy, Soul, VIP, Rare Earth, Black Forum, Workshop, Jazz, Divinity and others. In 1972 Motown moved its headquarters to Los Angeles, California. The company expanded its television productions and entered the motion picture industry. Lady Sings the Blues, Motown’s first feature-length film, received five Academy Award Nominations. By 1975, Motown Industries was the largest black-owned corporation in the world. In 1980 the Motown Historical Museum was established at Hitsville U.S.A. to commemorate the Motown Sound and to memorialize Motown’s distinctive heritage and its global impact.

“The largest black-owned corporation in the world” – that’s amazing. But the big significance of Motown is that it united everyone in their love of the music. It wasn’t just black people who enjoyed Motown – it was everyone. Indeed, in this country the leading pioneer of Motown music, dare I mention him, was Tony Blackburn.

What is stunning about the Motown Museum is how small the operation was (when it started – later it expanded to several suburban houses). It was literally just a house. Berry Gordy lived upstairs with his family (you can visit the flat with its original 1960s furnishings) and shipped the records from his dining room table. Downstairs the studio was in the garage and the control room was in the kitchen.

To stand in Studio A, the garage, and just imagine all the vast number of Motown hits which were created there – was just mind-blowing. Here’s a gratuitous snap of me standing outside “Hitsville USA”:

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.