"The Corner" was an intersection of people drawn by jobs created by the explosive growth of Pontiac's automobile industry. In the early 1900s, large numbers of mostly rural Southerners settled near factories on the southwest side of the city. They were primarily African Americans, but also included other minorities. What began as a transient settlement of workers and their families became a community of merchants, churches, and homes that endured into the 1960s, largely segregated from greater Pontiac. Musicians and advocates for social change were among its prominent residents, and every type of business found in downtown Pontiac could also be found there.