PHARMACY

A Cass Tech High School alumnus and longtime Boston-Edison resident, Sidney Barthwell Sr. earned his B.S. in Pharmacy from Wayne State University in 1929. Upon graduation, then-dean Roland P. Lakey loaned him $25 to pay for his degree.

The ambitious Barthwell opened his first pharmacy at the height of the Great Depression in 1933 and provided much-needed work for many Black Detroit residents — a long-term focus of his socially conscious career. He grew his footprint in the city, establishing 10 pharmacies with soda fountains, three ice-cream parlors and two patent medicine stores. READ MORE