(An amateur historian's quest for the answers)
uncovered the historical significance behind this seemingly innocent photo out of Detroit's past. (Photo courtesy of S. Sycko)
taken, and you were determined to figure out the answer?
Well, that had been the case with me and the above photo, which had been passed along to me over two years ago by a
friend. Being that amateur historian that I am, my curiosity peaked as I tried to resolve a few obvious questions. Of course,
that primary question being, When and where was this photo taken? I knew I remembered seeing that church in the
background somewhere, but for the life of me, I just couldn't remember where. Consequently, I began an intense search
to find out -- not realizing at the time the photo's historical significance, which it turned out depicted a somewhat sad and
unfortunate event in this region's history.
At first I was thrown off course by the signs "CARVER" which were displayed in the windows of the buses. Realizing that
the African-American students visible in this photo obviously appeared to be of high-school age, I first began searching for
the location of a former "Carver" High School in Detroit. I figured the sign identified the school the students attended, and
if I could just locate Carver High, then everything else in this photo would fall right into place. Oh boy, was I way off track!!
After speaking with a number of older long-time Detroit residents, I soon began to discover that no one could remember a
Carver High School. In addition, even a 1960's era Social Studies manual, published by the Detroit Board of Education
-- which listed all of the current DPS "Senior" High Schools -- also didn't list a Carver Senior High. Obviously, I had run into
a brick wall.
Desperate, I decided to post the photo on the "Detroit memories" discussion group site, which is located over in Yahoo!
Groups. Finally, after some input from a few of the members, the pieces began to all come together....although somewhat
piecemeal at first.
I already knew that the photo had to be taken sometime prior to 1960, because I was familiar with the make of those DSR
buses seen working the school runs. All of the buses, including lead coach #7648, were a part of a fleet of 450 small-size
31-passenger coaches (#7311-7760) that were manufactured by the Checker Cab Manufacturing Corp., and were
delivered to the DSR beginning in October of 1950. Since the last of the Checker buses were retired in 1960, I was now
able to narrow the time span of the photo down to within a ten year window.
The group members were first helpful in identifying the location of the photo. After a few guesses, the mystery was solved.
That large church in the background was identified as Little Rock Baptist Church, which is located at 9000 Woodward
Avenue at Josephine. During the time the photo was taken, the church was known as the Central Woodward Christian
Church. With the church in the photo now having possibly been identified, it was just logical to assume that the students
would be leaving Northern High School, which was (and still is) located just across Josephine street to the north.
Of course, I had to drive over to the location, with photo in hand, to verify the information. And the info given was indeed
correct, as the building itself has remained relatively unchanged after all these years. However, those homes located to the
east of the church were no longer there. It turns out, the homes were all demolished sometime during the late seventies to
make way for an addition built onto Northern High. The annex to the school was built extending southward from the main
building, and stretching across Josephine to behind the rear of the church.
THE LOCATION WAS NOW SOLVED!! The photo was taken sometime during the 1950's, at the corner of Woodward Avenue
and Josephine, looking eastward.
However, with the location now identified, my curiosity still lingered over a few unanswered questions which still remained
regarding "Carver." ....Where were these students going??? Were they leaving some sporting event, or something
along those lines, and were returning back to their high school home? But to where??? ...It couldn't be to a Carver High
School in Detroit, since there seemed to be no supporting evidence that it ever existed.
Meanwhile, another member from that Detroit discussion group had done an online search on "Carver" and ran across a
1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision document -- which I had at first brushed off as not being related to the photo, since
it only seemed to deal with a Carver (Elementary) School District located in a suburb outside of Detroit. It wasn't until I
decided to browse over the document, to see what it was all about, that I realized that the pieces were beginning to come
together.
I then ran across the following portion of the document which stopped me right in my tracks:
"At the time, Carver was an independent school district that had no high school because,
according to the trial evidence, 'Carver District . . . did not have a place for adequate
high school facilities.' Accordingly, arrangements were made with Northern High School in
the abutting Detroit School District so that the Carver high school students could obtain a
secondary school education."
That quotation came from a U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding an earlier 1971 Detroit cross-district busing case, in
which Detroit and its suburban public schools were ordered to be integrated across district lines through busing....a rather
controversial decision back in that day. It appears that the Carver School District had been referred to during the original
case as a previous example of cross-district busing already having been tried in the region.
Another court opinion from that 1974 decision further stated:
"The Court of Appeals found record evidence that, in at least one instance during the period
1957-1958, Detroit served a suburban school district by contracting with it to educate its
Negro high school students by transporting them away from nearby suburban white high
schools, and past Detroit high schools which were predominantly white, to Negro or
predominantly Negro Detroit schools."
After additional online research I discovered that the above mentioned Carver School District was located in Royal Oak
Township, a small half-mile square suburb located just to the north of Detroit. The district had originally been part of the
Royal Oak Township's Clinton School District. But an increase in the township's black population prompted the decision to
split the school district into two racially segregated districts. The newly created Carver School District -- and its lone George
Washington Carver Elementary School -- would now serve the township's poor black students. Unfortunately, the newly
formed Carver School District could not support a high school, and the immediate neighboring districts (which included
Ferndale and Oak Park) refused to accept the Carver students. That's when the Carver District contracted with the Detroit
District, and the Carver graduates were bussed to the predominately black Detroit Northern High as tuition students.
However, after two years, the Carver school district fell behind in paying the student's tuition fees and owed Detroit over
$125,000 in back money. Since the Carver District was in no position to pay, the Detroit District also rejected the Royal
Oak Township students. The district's school board then appealed to the adjacent white suburbs, who again rejected
them, leaving the Royal Oak Township youngsters with no high school to attend. The district's dilemma even prompted a
September 5, 1960, national TIME Magazine article, written under the title, "The Unwanted."
It was then that the significance of this photograph hit me and I was able to draw the following conclusions regarding it:
Obviously, the bus signs had nothing to do with the school not visible in the photo. The black students
seen boarding the first fleet of buses belonged to the Carver School District. Because the district's only
school, George Washington Carver Elementary, only went to the 9th grade, the students were being
bused "cross-district," using DSR buses, to the predominately black Northern High School in Detroit.
Since the busing occurred during the period 1957-1959, this would help to date the photo to between
those years. Those "CARVER" signs located in the front windows of the buses -- which threw me off at
first -- displayed the return destination of the students, which was Carver Elementary School in Royal
Oak Township.
Wow!!! ...It's ironic how a seemingly innocent photo can yield so much history behind it.
ADDED FOOTNOTE: It should be noted here that through the initiative of then Michigan Governor G. Mennon Williams and others, the
Carver District (which served the western portion of the township) was later annexed by the Oak Park School District in 1960.
miscellaneous online "Opinion of the Court" documents from the July 25, 1974, US Supreme Court decision of Milliken v. Bradley 1971 (including, but not
limited to the online Cornell Law School Supreme Court "Collection"); TIME.com article Monday, Sep. 5, 1960, titled "The Unwanted" and other misc
sources.
