In 1968, the Ferndale, MI school district became the first northern district to be sued by federal officials for operating segregated schools. The district fought integration for 13 years, using the same tactics as Southern schools—and other schools across the north—as if from a playbook.
1920: Testimony from a 1969 deposition of Anna Thomas, a Black resident of Royal Oak Township, showing that white officials always intended for Grant Elementary to be a segregated school:
“They told me I was to turn it in to the School Board when it was filled out and I told them how I felt about it and I said, ‘I am not going to segregate the children. We ahve never had that and we can’t accept the school.’ They had selected the site, it was to be at Bethlawn and Eight Mile Road and that was the site they had selected. Well, we had no lights, we had no water, we didn’t have anything. It was snakes and such as that, a lot of unpleasant things.
“So Mrs. Johnson and I went the next morning and got the petition and there was a certain date set for me to turn the petition in to the School Board and Mrs. Terry told me they were told to take mine in and I didn’t let her know the day until the petition was to be turned in and I sent word. In fact, I asked some friends to come in. I wanted them to know that it just wasn’t me along that was turning this proposition down.”
1944: Memo from then-superintendent of Ferndale schools about Grant Elementary
Provides context as to what Grant was like before the district’s prolonged refusal to integrate the all-Black elementary school.
September 20, 1967: Memo from Ira Polley
Notice of Michigan’s new state-level policy to eliminate school segregation, and includes a list of questions for districts.
September 21, 1967: Response from Ferndale Superintendent to Ira Polley
Response from Ferndale regarding the state’s new policy to eliminate school segregation. Mentions Grant elementary.
September 25, 1968: Initial Notice of Violation from H.E.W.
First notice that H.E.W. found evidence of segregation at Grant Elementary School.
December 30, 1968: Letter from Equal Opportunity in Education Committee
Chairman of a Black parent group in Ferndale, the Equal Opportunity in Education Committee, laying out a list of demands for the district, particularly at Grant Elementary.
1968-1971: Timeline of Ferndale vs. H.E.W. Correspondence
Lists all correspondence between the school district and United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare regarding compliance with school desegregation and withholding of federal funding for the district.
1969: Ferndale School District Map
Ferndale School District map; my family’s house was on the block of Renssealer north of Northfield.
February 5, 1969: Letter from Ira Polley
Letter informing Ferndale School Superintendent that the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare found Grant Elementary “racially segregated as a result of decisions and policies which are attributable to the Board (Ferndale) of Education.”
February 6, 1969: Memo from Ferndale Superintendent to Ira Polley
Denies that the school did discriminate.
February 7, 1969: Memo from Ira Polley
Alerting the district to the possibility that federal funding could be withheld and offering assistance with desegregation plans.
February 10, 1969: Office of Vocational Education, Money Lost
Ferndale district estimates of money lost by preserving segregation.
February 11, 1969: Response from Ferndale to Ira Polley
Lawyer for the Ferndale school board denies any segregation of students by race.
April 18, 1969: Memo from Ira Polley
Once again offering assistance in creating a desegregation plan, after Ferndale was formally for failure to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
August 12, 1969: Memo from Ira Polley
Memo from Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction laying out the timeline of investigation into Ferndale school district’s failure to desegregate from 1966 to 1969.
1970: The Findings of Fact document by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
Administrative Proceeding in the Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare in the matter of School District of the City of Ferndale, Michigan and the State Department of Education of Michigan.
October 11, 1973: “Segregation Findings Upheld”
William Grant for the Detroit Free Press
January 26, 1975: “State Fights U.S. Plan To Deny $90 Million”
Detroit Free Press reports on the federal funding being withheld from Ferndale schools as the district continued to maintain “that Grant [the all-Black school in the district] is not purposely segregated, but is all black only because it is in an all-black neighborhood.”
A February 26, 1975: “Ferndale Plan Rejected”
Lansing State Journal reports all four plans submitted by the Ferndale School Board for voluntary desegregation of the all-Black elementary school were rejected by the U.S. Department of Justice. The letter rejecting the plans says, “While we do not reject ‘freedom-of-choice’ or voluntary plans as inadequate on their face, our experience in circumstances similar to Ferndale has been that such plans do not work.”
September 4, 1975: “Ferndale Pulls Whites to Black School”
Detroit Free Press reports that a magnet “open classroom” program was started at Grant Elementary, as the “Ferndale board…was looking for a way out of its battle with HEW over Grant Elementary.”
September 10, 1975: “Schools Add 1,200 to Plan for Integration”
William Grant for the Detroit Free Press
April 29, 1976: “Complaint Revives Ferndale School Suit”
William Grant for the Detroit Free Press
1978: United States. v. School District of Ferndale
Opinion by Justice Celebrezze, Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
January 31, 1980: “Ferndale schools must desegregate, appeals court says”
Detroit Free Press reports that the “three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the district opened an all-black elementary school in 1926— Grant School, near Eight Mile Road and Wyoming— specifically for the purpose of separating students by race. The court also ruled that past discriminatory practices, such as maintaining a black faculty and all-black enrollment at Grant for a half-century, continue to deprive students of educational opportunities.” This overturns a 1978 ruling.
August 18, 1980:“Ferndale bus plan rejected”
Detroit News
October 9, 1980: “Ferndale Busing Will Begin Jan. 5 for 350 Students”
Detroit Free Press reports that “after 12 years of court battles…Ferndale schools will begin busing more than 350 elementary school students beginning Jan. 5 under a desegregation plan approved Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Horace Gilmore”
June 12, 1981: “Busing Gets an A”
Detroit Free Press reports that the first year of Ferndale’s desegregation was a success, and that the district was estimated to have lost $2 million in federal funding over the course of the years the district refused to integrate.
December 10, 1981: “Ferndale gets federal money”
Detroit Free Press reports federal money allowed again after Grant Elementary was desegregated in January 1981.
April 26, 1984: “Holly High School retains accreditation”
By staff reporter, The Herald Advertiser for Northwest Oakland County
June 28, 1984: “School Board to dip into fund equity for 1984-85”
By Kathy Whipple, The Herald Advertiser for Northwest Oakland County
2008: Oak Park School District map
Clearly indicates that my parents’ block of Renssealer is not in Oak Park schools
