Busing in Detroit - historical question - how did it not happen in Detroit?

[Osito57]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

Except for SW Detroit and the upscale neighborhoods in the city. Chadsey, Western International and Southwestern High Schools still have decent amounts of White students. Renaissance and Cass Tech are still about 2% White. Besides that, I think there are sprinkles of White students in Detroit public high schools.

I would not call 2% white at Renaissance and Cass a "decent" number. The two schools are about as nondiverse as you could get (98-99% black).

Chadsey is closing, so forget that, and Western and Southwestern do not have that many whites. They are both mostly Latino (Mexican).

There were some whites on the Far West Side schools (Warrendale and Rouge Park areas) but not too many left in 2009.

I don't think any East Side schools have whites.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by Osito57

I would not call 2% white at Renaissance and Cass a "decent" number. The two schools are about as nondiverse as you could get (98-99% black).

Chadsey is closing, so forget that, and Western and Southwestern do not have that many whites. They are both mostly Latino (Mexican).

There were some whites on the Far West Side schools (Warrendale and Rouge Park areas) but not too many left in 2009.

I don't think any East Side schools have whites.

Actually, I was talking about Chadsey, Western and Southwestern in terms of having a "decent" amount of White students, according to recent demographics.

http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/.../1076#students

http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/.../1212#students

http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/.../1236#students

[alisea mcleod]

This is an interesting question. As someone already suggested, the framing is problematic. I hate when people call Detroit the most segregated city. Please! Detroit may be one of the most segregated cities from its surrounding suburbs, meaning there is a clear--visual--racial divide. However, Detroit itself is not segregated that much within since the white population and other minority populations are tiny.

Lots of good information (and news stories) have been provided here. I cannot add much to them. I would only add that when I went to Renaissance there was a nice mix of groups. Yet, before attending Renaissance, I went to elementary and high schools where there were only one to five white kids in my schools.

Really the answer is quite simple as someone has already offered. The city and its suburbs are separate entities. Whites moved to the burbs for many reasons including their choice not to integrate their children. I think there might have been more rioting had anyone tried to force integrating Detroit city students into the school systems of independent municipalities.

[and the]

Except for SW Detroit and the upscale neighborhoods in the city. Chadsey, Western International and Southwestern High Schools still have decent amounts of White students. Renaissance and Cass Tech are still about 2% White. Besides that, I think there are sprinkles of White students in Detroit public high schools.

Only 2% of students in the best public schools in the city are white? How come all the white kids are forced to go to the crappy schools?

[DCgoblue]

Southern school systems are almost exclusively done on a county setup whereas Michigan and most northern school systems tend to be city based. If there would have been a Wayne County school district, there probably would have been busing from the suburbs into the city and vice versa. For example, had I gone to high school in the Mecklenburg County, NC Public (Charlotte area) schools I would have been bused nearly to the South Carolina border instead of going to the school about .5 mile from my house.

[jiminnm]

Detroit was one of the first major cities to bus students after Brown v. Board of Ed. was decided in 1954. I was in grade school in DPS during the 1950s , and busing began in 1955-56 and continued for several years afterward.

[Scott Rav]

For those of you that were not there, or had the wonderful opportunity of being relocated by your parents...be thankful.