Lucille Porter knew how to help people, and she knew how to bring them together. She organized the annual African-American Downtown Festival in 1996, a big Ann Arbor community block party that raised money while honoring the history of black-owned businesses and homes that used to dominate the area around Fourth Avenue and Ann Street. More than 20 years ago, she founded the Community Leaning Post, a non-profit organization that began as a program to help ex-offenders find homes and now focuses on helping seniors and youngsters.
