Our Roots Run Deep
“We are because they were.”
The roots of our family tree began with the love of two hearts. Lewis Spencer was born in 1750 in Grand Bay, Alabama to Gloria Reeves and Lew Spencer. A freed slave who became a farmer, he met Garrett Smiley in 1775 and was smitten — within six months they were married and settled in Grand Bay.
They had eight children, affectionately known as the Elite 8. Every branch of the Spencer family alive today traces back to one of them.
Everything since — the sacrifices, the traditions passed down, the stories told around kitchen tables, the laughter at family gatherings — grew from those roots. Generations moved north during the Great Migration, carrying Alabama soil in their shoes and building new lives in cities like Detroit.
Detroit 2027 is another chapter in that story.
