KC-8.2.III.F The 1970s saw growing clashes between conservatives and liberals over social and cultural issues, the power of the federal government, race, and…Individual rights.

“The school board knew that school segregation was a problem, but wanted to try and fix it in a way that would appease white families. But…white Grand Rapids families flocked to suburban districts anyway...the one-way busing design proved to be a burden that only black children had to endure.” - Dr. Todd Robinson, historian

“The decision to close South High was the most racist thing that has occurred here.” - Dr. Joseph McMillian, the first Black administrator in Grand Rapids Public Schools

“The State of Michigan is attempting to wash its hands of its own creation.” - Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, in decent to the Milliken v. Bradley decision

Objectives:

1. Students will contextualize persistent racial inequalities that continued throughout the Civil Rights era

2. Students will analyze Grand Rapids Public Schools’ decision to close South High School and bus Black students to predominantly white high schools (one-way busing).

This Key Concept in an Antiracist Classroom:

This lesson will help students identify racist policies that have led to modern racial disparities in education and the lingering “opportunity gap “in American society. In 1974, a federal judge declared that inequities faced by Black students in West Michigan were “no one’s fault,” therefore implying that conditions in one of America’s most segregated cities are a natural outcome of market forces.  This implication insults our students, their families, their cultures, and their humanity. This lesson will help students to understand that the current discrepancies in education, ie the current system of “good schools” vs. “bad schools” in West Michigan (this language is problematic, however, talk to almost any teenager in our region and they will certainly recognize these distinctions) were not inevitable, but rather, were the results of decades-old choices of white community members who ignored voices and concerns of the Black community.  

This lesson also highlights the complexities of antiracist action and the pitfalls of such action when the voices of the Black communities are ignored. Members of the Grand Rapids School Board were attempting to implement several suggestions from the antiracist report from the Kerner Commission, which clearly identified white anti-Black racism as the cause of the 1967 uprisings around the nation. Most white Americans, including the press in West Michigan, disagreed and placed the blame on Black communities. The significance of South High School, the city’s only Black majority high school, was clear to the Black community members, however, the school board decided to close the school, a decision whose effects are still felt today.

This activity leads students to the necessary question: “What if?” What if voters in our city had actually dedicated themselves to the spirit of racial equity in 14th Amendment and 1885 Michigan Civil Rights Act as they had promised? What could our city and our nation have looked like today? Through these questions, students can begin to imagine the possibilities of what they want the future of our community to look like. 

Notes

This lesson is part 3 of 3 in a series of lessons created in partnership with the Grand Rapids Public Museum and its Archives.

In lesson one, The Fight Against Jim Crow in Grand Rapids which is focused on the 1920s, students take a “virtual tour” of Grand Rapids by following a map linked to artifacts and newspaper stories from the museum’s collection. Students use Grand Rapids as a case study of the experiences of participants of the Great Migration and explore the strategies employed by the local Black community in conjunction with the NAACP to press the Michigan Supreme Court to outlaw Jim Crow practices in the state.

In lesson two, Riot or Uprising?: “The Language of the Unheard”, students learn that despite the Michigan Supreme Court’s 1927 decision, discrimination against Black residents continued nearly unabated. Students take another “virtual tour” of Grand Rapids by following a map linked to artifacts and newspaper stories from the museum’s collection to explore the experiences of Grand Rapids’ Black residents in the post-war era, culminating with the uprising in the city in July 1967. The lesson leaves students with a deeper understanding of what Dr. Martin Luther King meant when he said “a riot is the language of the unheard” and why American cities continue to see civil disturbances that revolve around issues of racial injustice in the United States.

In this final lesson in the series, students take on the perspective of a Grand Rapids school board member in the wake of the ‘67 “riot.” They will review the context and details of the inequities of education in the city and attempt to use the Kerner Commission’s suggestions to create a new plan for Grand Rapids’ students. After discussion, students will learn about the actual decision made by the school board in 1968 and explore the consequences of the decision. The lesson will give students a valuable perspective on the consequences of ignoring the opinions of Black community members.

Teaching Materials Made Possible by Contributions from

Grand Rapids Public Museum

A special thanks to Ms. Deborah Jones, niece of Malcolm X and a proud member of Grand Rapids South High School’s final graduating class. Ms. Jones helped advise on the creation of this simulation, and said: “if you don’t know this story, you can’t understand Grand Rapids today.” Her visit to the classroom was the highlight of the year for the students!