TO THE EDITOR:
The authors of “50 Years After Milliken v. Bradley” (January 2022 Michigan Bar Journal) did a fine job in describing the judicial overview of the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision on school desegregation in the United States.
As I said, however, as the judge who signed the district court’s order, I’m not a sociologist and not an educator, but I am also not sure the case really hastened white flight from Detroit by much. Detroit, because of the age of its housing stock and layout, simply became a less attractive place to live. Those who could afford to move into the new suburban communities and enjoy the amenities they offered did so. School environment was a part of that, but a small part. The city had aged, and those who could escape its wrinkles did so, while leaving those who couldn’t afford it behind, but not because of Milliken v. Bradley.
Hon. Avern Cohn, Detroit
TO THE EDITOR:
“50 Years After Milliken v. Bradley” by John R. Runyan, Erin Gianopoulos, and John E. Mogk is an excellent piece of journalism that should be a must-read for all Michigan students. Maybe understanding how we got to this place of such totally disparate school districts will spur creative thoughts on how to remedy the situation. Thank you to the authors for such informative yet succinct review of urban education and desegregation in our country.
John Liskey, Okemos
TO THE EDITOR:
Interdistrict school busing for southeastern Michigan was the “defund the police” concept of the early 1970s. It was legally flawed as noted by the United States Supreme Court then and subsequently. It was a “remedy” that almost no one wanted other than the plaintiffs and their attorneys. And it wreaked havoc on politics in Michigan for quite a while since the public, not incorrectly, perceived the concept flowed from the left end of the spectrum and voted massively against even moderate Democrat politicians.
“50 Years After Milliken v. Bradley” is an article longing for the activist urge that came up with this bad idea. By the time of the lawsuit, it was clear that the city of Detroit had engaged in segregation of its schools and would need to cease and reverse, if possible, any segregation of its schools. There were findings that the city had discriminated in the past. But the litigants sought to rope into the Detroit problem students from other areas, even other counties, that had not engaged in any unlawful discrimination. The U.S. Supreme Court noted that there was no satisfactory evidence that the 53 school districts had engaged in any racial segregation of their schools.
The children and families from those other 53 communities were to be used to fashion an unwanted and unlawful remedy.
Robert H. Roether, Saline
The Michigan Bar Journal accepts letters to the editor via email at barjournal@michbar.org.