The Metro: New book details the struggle to integrate Detroit schools

U-M law professor Michelle Adams joined the show to discuss her book, “The Containment,” and share expertise on the challenge to integrate Detroit schools.

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Photo credit: Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives/Labor and Urban Affairs

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Many school districts throughout metro Detroit, and Detroit in particular, are segregated. 

"The Containment" by Michelle Williams.
Macmillan Publishers
“The Containment” by Michelle Williams.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1974 Milliken v. Bradley decision limited the courts’ ability to address segregation in schools by halting an “interdistrict busing” plan to tackle Detroit’s increasingly segregated classrooms. Legal scholars say the ruling eroded the progress of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which declared racial segregation in the classroom unconstitutional.

So what would it take to actually integrate metro Detroit’s schools? Legal scholar Michelle Adams, a University of Michigan law professor and author of the new book, “The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North,” joined The Metro on Wednesday to share her expertise on the subject.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.

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Authors

  • The Metro
  • Trevor McConico
  • Sam Corey is a producer for 101.9 WDET, which includes finding and preparing interesting stories for the daily news, arts and culture program, The Metro. Sam joined WDET after a year and a half at The Union, a small newspaper in California, and stints at a variety of local Michigan outlets, including WUOM and the Metro Times. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.