School Integration
and Busing
1968 Grand Rapids Public Schools
School Board Simulation
Click here for more about activism at South High
Context: What do you recall about the experiences of Black citizens of Grand Rapids?
In you small group, discuss: What do these terms mean?
Great Migration
Fight Against Jim Crow
Emmett Bolden
“Rowing, not drifting”
Redlining
Uprising in 1967
Job Discrimination
Grand Rapids Public Schools
Lesson 1: The Fight Against Jim Crow
Great Migration led to a dramatic increase of Black residents in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Top industries refused to hire Black workers
Workers relegated to lowest paying jobs
Segregated seating at some public spaces
Direct action campaign led by lawyer Oliver M. Green and community member Emmett Bolden, backed by national NAACP, led to Michigan Supreme Court outlawing Jim Crow practices in Michigan.
Lesson 2: Uprising of 1967
1910 - 1930
Lesson 2: Causes of the 1967 Uprising
Job and housing discrimination continued
“Redlining Practices” and neighborhood zoning laws kept Black citizens in overcrowded and under resourced neighborhoods.
Grand Rapids Public Schools became highly segregated. White students left neighborhood schools, Black schools were most overcrowded and understaffed. NAACP protests were ignored.
Tension boiled over in July, 1967 after a perceived incident of police brutality.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed to unjust conditions as primary cause for racial protests. The Grand Rapids Press blamed undisciplined Black youth.
1930 - 1967
Grand Rapids Public Schools after WW2
In the post World War II era, GRPS planned to build 16 new schools. A In 1949 survey (The Reavis Survey) was conducted which concluded that schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods in the city center were growing the fastest and, according to the survey, “already exceeded maximum capacity.” Therefore, the city center region was identified as the #1 building priority.
A special school tax raised $10 million.
BUT…where were the new schools built?
16 new schools
“Grand Rapids’ public school system operates as one of the most tightly segregated of any city in the north.”
The NAACP report was ignored by city leaders.
June Shagaloff, the National Education Director of the NAACP (1961 report)
Leaders in Grand Rapids had long been in denial of racism in the city
Leaders in Grand Rapids had long been in denial of racism in the city
UNTIL, the uprising in July of 1967 proved that things needed to change and the School Board decided to take action…
But what should change? How?
The entire country faced racial unrest in the late 1960s…
Minneapolis
Watts
Los Angeles
Chicago
Newark
Washington, D.C.
Detroit
Cleveland
Dayton
Grand Rapids was not the only city facing an urban crisis in the late 1960s.
Kerner Report
1967
After uprisings rocked several major cities in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued an Executive Order to investigate the causes and potential solutions.
President LBJ established the Kerner Commission, or the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, to discover causes of racial unrest and recommend solutions. The committee findings were clear: the cause of the 1967 uprisings was White anti-Black racism.
Review the suggestions on your handout!
Click for Dr. Robinson’s explanation of the Report’s impact on the GRSB.
Kerner Report, 1967:
"Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal…white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it."
Education Recommendations (except):
1) Increasing Efforts to eliminate de facto segregation: Substantially increase aid to school systems seeking to eliminate de facto segregation either within the system or in cooperation with neighboring school systems.
a) Such strategies include school pairing, busing, open enrollment, boundary changes, strategic use of site selection, enlargement of attendance areas, and consolidation of schools to overcome racial imbalance…
2) Provide quality education to Black Neighborhood Schools… provide for greater concentration of aid to school districts having the greatest proportion of disadvantaged students (exclude affluent school districts with less than specified minimum numbers of poor students).
3) Improving Community-School Relations
a) Community Participation in the Educational Process Should be Encouraged.
b) Ghetto Schools should serve as community centers.
Review these suggestions on your handout!
A new national integration strategy emerged: “Busing”
The idea was to bus kids out of their segregated neighborhoods into different neighborhood schools to diversify the schools
The first African American students to attend Plymouth Elementary School in Monrovia arrive by bus on Sept. 10, 1970.
What do we know now? Did “Busing” work?
Short answer: Yes, it likely would have worked. BUT, it was highly unpopular in many communities throughout the country.
According to research findings of Dr. Roslyn Mickelson, UNC Charlotte (2002),
Children who attended racially diverse schools:
“School integration didn’t fail…the only failure is that we stopped pursuing it and allowed the reign of segregation to return.”
- Rucker Johnson, Economist at UC Berkeley (2019)
You will become a Grand Rapids School Board Member
What would you do? How do we solve these problems?
Considering what you know about the historical context of the situation, the advice from the Kerner Report and the directive from Michigan’s State Board of Education, choose between six options that the Grand Rapids School Board has in front of them.
Which plan will you advocate for?
Before you see the six options and we start to discuss, we are going to take a few brief notes on the context/facts of schools in the Grand Rapids Public School District in spring of 1968.
Fulton St.
Hall St.
Burton St.
Reeds Lake
Division Ave.
Fuller Ave.
Wealthy St.
Union High
Creston High
Central High
South High
Ottawa Hills
Grand Rapids Black Residents
1967: 20,000 persons
Annotate your map with a couple of notes.
1967
5 main high schools
Fulton St.
Hall St.
Burton St.
Reeds Lake
Division Ave.
Fuller Ave.
Wealthy St.
Union High
Creston High
Central High
South High
Ottawa Hills
Grand Rapids Black Residents
1967: 20,000 persons
Union High was the city’s brand new school (opened 1967).
There was great need for investment on the city’s southeast side, where the predominantly Black schools were overcrowded, lacked enough books and desks, and where some classes had a 50 student to 1 teacher ratio. Despite this, the city built its new school in a white, working class neighborhood. The spacious new school had unused classrooms and only 2 Black students.
Fulton St.
Hall St.
Burton St.
Reeds Lake
Division Ave.
Fuller Ave.
Wealthy St.
Union High
Creston High
Central High
South High
Ottawa Hills
Grand Rapids Black Residents
1967: 20,000 persons
South High was the city’s only predominantly Black school. It’s alumni included Dentist Emmett Bolden and Congressman (and future President) Gerald R. Ford
Fulton St.
Hall St.
Burton St.
Reeds Lake
Division Ave.
Fuller Ave.
Wealthy St.
Union High
Creston High
Central High
South High
Ottawa Hills
Grand Rapids Black Residents
1967: 20,000 persons
None of the other 3 high schools had a Black student population of more than 5%
Considering what you know about the historical context of the situation, the advice from the Kerner Report and the directive from Michigan’s State Board of Education, choose between six options that the Grand Rapids School Board has in front of them. These are printed and posted around the room. Be prepared to share your thinking with the class.
Which plan will you advocate for?
#1 Walk around the room & read the options.
#2 Stand next to the solution which is most likely to work.
“Busing?” - What should the School Board do?
A. No busing. Rather than move students out of neighborhoods, use more tax dollars (increase taxes) to build schools where there is overcrowding (on the southeast side of the city. Black neighborhood schools are the most overcrowded and under-resourced in the city.)
B. “Two-way Busing” within the boundaries of Grand Rapids: Bus high school students out of their neighborhood to schools around the city for more racial balance in schools. Bus some white students to majority Black South High, and move some South high students to majority White Union, Ottawa Hills, and Creston.
C. “Two-way” countywide Busing: Bus high school students all over Kent County to ensure a county wide balance. Bus some Grand Rapids students out to Kentwood, Forest Hills, Rockford, etc. This will prevent “white flight” of White Grand Rapids citizens from moving to the suburbs to avoid Black students. “White flight” would lead to severe loss of tax dollars and therefore deterioration of school resources.
D. “One-Way Busing”: Close South High, the only majority Black High School. Bus South High students to majority white Union, Ottawa Hills, and Creston.
E. Do nothing for the next two years. Busing is needed, but pause for two years to explain and educate community members, teachers, and staff on the inequality in Grand Rapids education. Get community and teacher “buy-in” before imposing a plan which is necessary but will be unpopular and difficult. All the professionals involved need to be prepared and trained.
F. “None of the above” - Come up with a new option.
“Busing?” - What should the School Board do?
A. No busing. Rather than move students out of neighborhoods, use more tax dollars (increase taxes) to build schools where there is overcrowding (on the southeast side of the city. Black neighborhood schools are the most overcrowded and under-resourced in the city.)
B. “Two-way Busing” within the boundaries of Grand Rapids: Bus high school students out of their neighborhood to schools around the city for more racial balance in schools. Bus some white students to majority Black South High, and move some South high students to majority White Union, Ottawa Hills, and Creston.
C. “Two-way” countywide Busing: Bus high school students all over Kent County to ensure a county wide balance. Bus some Grand Rapids students out to Kentwood, Forest Hills, Rockford, etc. This will prevent “white flight” of White Grand Rapids citizens from moving to the suburbs to avoid Black students. “White flight” would lead to severe loss of tax dollars and therefore deterioration of school resources.
D. “One-Way Busing”: Close South High, the only majority Black High School. Bus South High students to majority white Union, Ottawa Hills, and Creston.
E. Do nothing for the next two years. Busing is needed, but pause for two years to explain and educate community members, teachers, and staff on the inequality in Grand Rapids education. Get community and teacher “buy-in” before imposing a plan which is necessary but will be unpopular and difficult. All the professionals involved need to be prepared and trained.
F. “None of the above” - Come up with a new option.
Now that we have discussed, let’s find out what actually happened!
What the School Board actually decided:
A. No busing. Rather than move students out of neighborhoods, use more tax dollars (increase taxes) to build schools where there is overcrowding (on the southeast side of the city. Black neighborhood schools are the most overcrowded and under-resourced in the city.)
B. “Two-way Busing” within the boundaries of Grand Rapids: Bus high school students out of their neighborhood to schools around the city for more racial balance in schools. Bus some white students to majority Black South High, and move some South high students to majority White Union, Ottawa Hills, and Creston.
C. “Two-way” countywide Busing: Bus high school students all over Kent County to ensure a county wide balance. Bus some Grand Rapids students out to Kentwood, Forest Hills, Rockford, etc. This will prevent “white flight” of White Grand Rapids citizens from moving to the suburbs to avoid Black students. “White flight” would lead to severe loss of tax dollars and therefore deterioration of school resources.
D. “One-Way Busing”: Close South High, the only majority Black High School. Bus South High students to majority white Union, Ottawa Hills, and Creston.
E. Do nothing for the next two years. Busing is needed, but pause for two years to explain and educate community members, teachers, and staff on the inequality in Grand Rapids education. Get community and teacher “buy-in” before imposing a plan which is necessary but will be unpopular and difficult. All the professionals involved need to be prepared and trained.
F. “None of the above” - Come up with a new option.
Fulton St.
Hall St.
Burton St.
Reeds Lake
Division Ave.
Fuller Ave.
Wealthy St.
Union High
Creston High
Central High
South High
Ottawa Hills
Grand Rapids Black Residents
1967: 20,000 persons
1967
5 Main High Schools
Fulton St.
Hall St.
Burton St.
Reeds Lake
Division Ave.
Fuller Ave.
Wealthy St.
Union High
Creston High
Central: converted to specialty school
Ottawa Hills
Grand Rapids Black Residents
1967: 20,000 persons
1968
BUSING
BUSING
BUSING
3 Main High Schools
South High is closed!
Is racial justice ahead?
Quotes from the Community:
Paul Phillips: President of G.R. Urban League and 1st Black School Board member
“The program is a good one” and “the (Black) community will support it.”
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 129 (2012).
Quotes from the Community:
Jay Pylman: Superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools
“The objective is to move from five high schools to three.
The second objective of integration could only be met by starting with the school where the greatest imbalance exists, which is South High School.”
Quotes from the Community:
Jerome Sorrells: President of G.R. NAACP
“The plan is a significant and constructive step toward a better education system for all….”
Both the Urban League and NAACP believed that integration provided the best avenue for progress, even if that meant loss of community control.
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 130 (2012).
Quotes from the Community:
Carl Smith: Chairman of the Inner-City Organizing Committee
“This plan insures that blacks will never have any say in what affects the education of their children…The Board is trying to force white middle class values on black people…this plan is a perpetuation of institutional racism…if white liberals want their children around black kids, let them be bused into the inner-city.”
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 130 (2012).
Quotes from the Community:
Ella Sims: Community Organizer
“Segregation has been called a disease of society and should be corrected by society. We cannot deny that our schools play a great part in continuity the traditions of our society. So integration should be the board’s goal. If busing can help this goal, and it can, then busing and cross-busing (2-way) should be used to this end.
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 130 (2012).
Quotes from the Community:
Black woman from Grand Rapids: comment at open mic during plan’s reveal
(response to a comment from a white woman about how the school board is biased and only seems to favor Black students)
“We don't want to live next door to you and marry your son or daughter. We want an adequate education for our children. If we had an adequate system we would stay right there in the inner-city school. But I want my daughter to get a decent education. If it’s next door to you or in your living room that’s where I’ll go.”
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 129 (2012).
May, 1968
Fulton St.
Hall St.
Burton St.
Reeds Lake
Division Ave.
Fuller Ave.
Wealthy St.
Union High
Creston High
Central: converted to specialty school
Ottawa Hills
Grand Rapids Black Residents
1967: 20,000 persons
1968
BUSING
BUSING
BUSING
3 Main High Schools
South High is closed!
Is racial justice ahead?
As you explore the results of the 1968 School Board Plan…
Recall: The School Board decided to implement (option D), “One-Way Busing” plan which closed the city’s only majority Black high school and bused the South High students to majority white schools: Union, Ottawa Hills, and Creston.
Think about these questions:
1. Describe the effects of the School Board’s decision to close South High and opt for “one-way busing.”
2. After learning the result, does this change your original decision as a school board member? Why or why not? Which option do you now think would have been best? Defend your position.
3. Do you agree with federal judge Albert Engler that school segregation in West Michigan is “nobody's” fault? Why or why not?
June 8, 1968. “Negroes Get Orientation at Union”
Results of the Plan…What happened?
September 5, 1968
Black students get off the bus at Union High on the first day of school.
In total, 270 former South High students were sent to Union High.
South High School (turned into a Middle School in 1968)
For many former South High students, this transition was a sad one. They missed their school community.
After getting off the busses at the end of the school day from Central, Creston, and Union, many students would hang out around old South High, reluctant to leave. The assistant principal asked if they just wanted to “come and rub the bricks for a while” to feel connected back to their old building.
One week into the school year, a brawl broke out Tensions had been high after an alleged incident in the school cafeteria. A school discipline officer had reported seeing White students carrying chains outside the school the day before the brawl. The Grand Rapids Press reported that fighting started in the cafeteria and “trouble spread down the halls and numerous fist fights broke out between former South and West Side Union students.”
The school closed at noon and the principal called for buses to take Black students back to the southeast side of the city. Fighting continued as students waited for the busses.
The police were called. Tear gas was used and 6 students were arrested. Superintendent Raymond L. Boozer said, “Everybody’s emotions were running high. All it took to trigger things was one little something.”
“Mob violence” at Union High School
“It was mob violence at Union High School.”
- Dr. Paul King, former South student bussed to Union
“When we first got there, there were some signs as we got off the bus saying ‘N***** go home’
- Kathy Bracey, former South student bussed to Union
Union High School principals and teachers assembled Black students into the school auditorium after the brawl. Secondary School Director, Robert Stark, told The Grand Rapids Press, “The kids were emotional but they were expressing what the real problems were.” They mentioned the need for more Black students, Black teachers, and an end to racial taunting and threats from White classmates.
The school failed to respond to concerns of Black students and reports of constant harassment from White students during the first week.
What happened? Results of the Plan…
“It was just like Little Rock…we put our children out there, and they had to suffer the consequences-abusive stares and all sorts of subtle messages that they were not wanted. These children were facing hostility.”
“You would have thought you were in Alabama or Mississippi…people were just yelling racial epithets. ‘We don’t want no n****** here. It was just vicious.”
Grand Rapids Press, September 22, 1968
David E. Post was GRPS Board of Education President.
In a September 1968 emergency meeting, many disagreed about the best path forward but both Black speakers agreed, one necessary step was an improvement in teaching Black History.
Click here for more of this article
July 8, 1969: 1,406 Black community members signed a petition to end one way busing…
The petition was unsuccessful. Years of racial incidents and fighting followed at the integrated high schools.
Racial Unrest at Creston High School in 1970
White students formed a group called the Creston Ku Klux Klan, signed notes and passed them out to Black students. Racist slogans were written on bathroom walls.
May, 1970: Half of the schools 140 Black students faced arrest for disorderly conduct following a walk out after a fight in the hallways. School had to be closed.
The White Creston community and school officials blamed the race problem on the Black students who had walked out of school.
School officials told the press that they did not know what started the incident. Principal Russel Walters, however, admitted to the press that a group of Black students gave him evidence of the “Ku Klux Klan notes” after the fight.
“Mob violence” at Union High School
May, 1971 - Union forced to close for more than a week after a school boycott turned violent. 200 White students had refused to attend classes because Black students were given “preferential treatment.” Racial slurs erupted into fighting. It was estimated that a third of the student body, approximately 600 students, joined in the fighting.
60 police officers were called to stop the fighting, and chemical mace was used on students. 13 students were arrested (7 White and 6 Black).
Afterward / Reflections
1968
In 1969, Phillips quit the School Board, saying:
“We tell the negro to pull himself up by his boot straps, and then we take away the boots…I am disturbed and disappointed that we are not farther ahead…the community has been reluctant to get innovled and solve the problem…
In the 1950s, the Black man’s hand was open but the white man wouldn’t grasp it…the 1960s, the hand has turned into a clenched fist.”
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 163 (2012).
Afterward / Reflections
“If this is the way integration is going to turn out, it won’t do anyone any good…we are against one-way busing…the solution to the city’s racial problems must be total integration. We want schools in the black community but we want white children on the buses, too, going to them.”
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 163 (2012).
Longtime Community activist Ella Mary Sims advocated for education, housing and resources to help the less fortunate, she worked with the GR NAACP among many other organizations.
Jerome Sorrells: President of G.R. NAACP
1969
The Grand Rapids NAACP withdraws support for the plan,
The school board knew that school segregation was a problem, but wanted to try and fix it in a way that would appease White families. But after the “one way busing” plan’s implementation White Grand Rapids families flocked to suburban districts anyway. (East Kentwood, Rockford, Forest Hills, East Grand Rapids, etc.) Afterwards, white suburbanites referred to the city as “The Hell Hole” and “Dodge City.”
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 167 (2012).
Effects of the School Board’s one-way busing integration plan:
School Segregation Increased
Between 1968 and 1974, the number of racially imbalanced schools increased from 9 to 11.
A Final Attempt for “Two-Way Busing” Fails
In 1975, a final push by Black parents and the NAACP to force “Countrywide two way busing” was stopped by Federal Judge Albert Engle.
He ruled the increasing school segregation in the area was no one’s fault because the segregation was “by choice, not by law.”
(Option C)
Longtime Community activist Ella Mary Sims advocated for education, housing and resources to help the less fortunate, she worked with the GR NAACP among many other organizations.
Judge Albert Engle was nominated as federal district judge for the Western District of Michigan in 1970 President Richard Nixon. He ruled against the NAACP and refused to order two-way country wide busing. Though he did require suburban districts hire some Black teachers.
Afterward / Reflections
1987: Increasing concentration of Black residents in inner-city Grand Rapids
“I can’t say that my life is better now than it was 20 years ago…it's about the same or maybe worse”
- Black Grand Rapids resident, Lucille Taylor
In 1980s:
Dr. Joseph McMillian
First Black principal at Grand Rapids Public Schools (Sheldon Elementary) and award winning teacher.
“the decision to close South High was the most racist thing that has occurred here.”
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 167 (2012).
Afterward / Reflections
“When I was a young girl, I could not wait to get to South High and when I finally got there, I was in my glory…closing our school was the worst thing they could have done for the community...we were (and still are) just devastated…but the spirit of South lives on!”
- Deborah Jones, 1968 Graduate of South High School (final graduating class), and the niece of Malcolm X
Ms. Jones is a staunch believer in option A in our activity. The city should have funded the schools in need and not bussed anyone out of their neighborhood.
Interview during this lesson’s development, 2024
Click here for more reflections of students impacted by the decisions discussed in the lesson
Afterward / Reflections
“The school board knew that school segregation was a problem, but wanted to try and fix it in a way that would appease white families. But…white Grand Rapids families flocked to suburban districts anyway…”
“The one-way busing design proved to be a burden that only black children had to endure.”
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle
in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 167 (2012).
A suggestion from Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr:
If busing is not politically possible, Dr. Gates has another idea:
“Move dollars, not people. Bus the dollars from the rich school districts to the poor districts. We need to allocate the same amount of money per student per school.”
(option A in our discussion)
Gates’s comments are a response to research that has shown that the majority of states fund schooling through local property tax.
Lesson Appendix
Keep Scrolling for Extra Resources
Click to go back
Arguments presented at Sept 22, 1968 Emergency Meeting:
October, 1966
South High: a source of student activism even before the uprising
THIS IS MICHIGAN
NOT MISSISSIPPI
Return to Slide 1
Grand Rapids School Board finally spurred into Action
Grand Rapids School Board was pushed by the 1967 Uprising to admit that Grand Rapids had a problem.
The school board realized they needed “a shift in education philosophy of the school administration, one that took into consider the Kerner Report and other recent racial studies.”
The board believed that they had a responsibility to society and the economic and social well being of the community.
Todd Robinson, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg 124-125 (2012).
Click to go back
Panel Discussion at the Grand Rapids Public Museum
On December 12, 2023, the GRPM presented the first of a three-part series that considered the local impact of the Constitution and the 14th Amendment. The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment provided the legal rationale for key civil rights Supreme Court and legislative Decisions, including Brown v. Board of Education, Shelley v. Kraemer, The Fair Housing Act and Loving v. Virginia. The Constitution’s relevance is best understood through its application in daily life.
“Learning” explored the real-life impact of the Brown decision on the Grand Rapids Public Schools and the children that attended these schools. A 1966 study commissioned by the school board found that the segregated housing patterns of the city had created a “de-facto” segregated system. The report concluded that non-white students were receiving an inferior education and that white students were missing out on the opportunities for interaction with a diverse community. The GRPS board responded by creating a plan to integrate its schools by busing students from the predominantly South East Side of the city to schools that were located in the predominantly white districts on the West and North East sides of the city.
Randal Jelks, author of African Americans in Furniture City, served as the moderator of a panel discussion. The panelists were the former children who carried the burden of this integration plan. Three 1968 South High graduates (the last class) Mel Atkins, Rick Bengelink, and Deborah Jones. Ed Kettle, represented Union High School’s Class of 1969. Edye Evans Hyde graduated from Creston High in 1975 as did Teresa Neal, in 1977.
Access the full recording to hear firsthand from community members about the impact
this school reform had on their lives!
Click to go back
Justice Thurgood Marshall
How did Justice Marshall feel 20 years after the celebrated Brown v. Board decision?
He wrote that court defeats for “two-way countywide busing plans” (option D) (like the decision of Judge Engle and the Supreme Court Case Milliken v. Bradley) meant that the Brown v. Board decision had been overturned.
“Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together and understand each other.”
Schools now are currently resegregating.
Justice William Douglas
He added a dissent to go along with Justice Marshall in the Milliken v. Bradley decision. He claimed that De Facto segregation was nonsense and that the State of Michigan was attempting to “wash its hands of its own creation.”