Angela Davis of Detroit always thought about pursuing a nursing career. But in the mid-1990's, on the advice of her aunt, she took a job on the line at Chrysler building V-6 and V-8 engines. She eventually made as much as $80,000 per year. But she typically worked a shift that kept her at the plant until 11 p.m. "The reality check was when I dropped my daughter off for first grade last year and she said, 'See ya tomorrow, Mom.' It hit me that I never get to see her after school. That sealed it." When the buyout offer came from Chrysler, she couldn't accept it fast enough.
"It's a great paycheck. But it's only a paycheck," she says as she leaves her job at Chrysler to study nursing at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. Mrs. Davis hopes to graduate in 2010 and then relocate her family to the South, retracing the journey her father made as part of the post-World War II wave that brought African-Americans to cities like Detroit and Cleveland. "Everytime I vist down there it just feels like home," she says. Her father laments her departure. "Every week at my church I hear about two or three more young people moving South or Southwest. Too bad, because Michigan needs to keep its young people."
(As reported in the Wall Street Journal, 9/11/07)
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