The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North

Totally one sided

I read this book, as a book club choice, and though I am a life long Detoiter, the facts presented were relatively unknown to me. I was amazed, yet not really shocked, by how the whites in Detroit did practically anything and everything not to Integrate the school systems. I attended Catholic schools from first through twelfth grades and these schools were integrated. As a child, I personally do not remember witnessing much racism, but it may not have been overt to me. But it certainly was throughout Detroit. What a shame white people could not treat African American children as they were-- just children!

I never knew why schools in Metro Detroit were racially segregated. Going to Detroit Public Schools in the 1970s and 1980s, it was never explained by anyone, the reason students from Detroit could not go to schools in the suburbs. This book explains what was happening to create the conditions that shaped the learning experiences of Detroit students, to this very day, and beyond. If you want to understand that segregation never ended, despite claims of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), this book tells you how and why. Everyone interested in understanding the racial segregation of Metro Detroit needs to know this history.

A comprehensive, well-told history of the federal courts’ orders in Milliken v. Bradley to integrate the public schools in greater Detroit and of the Supreme Court’s decision not to require a metropolitan desegregation plan involving Detroit and many of its suburbs. While these cases involved Detroit, they set a precedent for maintaining segregated public schools in other northern cities with large minority populations and largely white suburbs.A must read for understanding a huge setback for civil rights in the north in the early 70s. One of the best non-fiction books I have read in the last decade.

Michelle Adams's book shares crucial information about a subject that affects everyone in the US: segregated schools. Her book is straightforward to read and the story she tells is one of great importance—absolutely a must-read.