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Chapter 4. Metropolitan Conversion in the Lower Courts, October, 1971, to June, 1973
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Chapter 4 Metropolitan Conversion in the Lower Courts, October, 1971, to June, 1973 Reaction The September 27, 1971, ruling on Detroit public school segregation came as a shock to most of the people of Detroit and the rest of Michigan. The media, with the exception of Bill Grant, had failed to cover the case in any depth. As a result, the public was unprepared. The Detroit News issued an editorial calling the ruling' 'unreasonable. " The white neighborhood papers in the city and the suburbs generally followed the lead of the anti-integration Detroit News. In contrast, Grant's Free Press said that it was "impossible to challenge [the court's] findings." The East Side Shopper tried to take a neutral and informative position but, because of pressure from readers and advertisers , its owners eventually sold the newspaper to a conservative chain opposed to "forced busing." Initially, the state central committee of the Michigan Democratic party adopted a resolution supporting busing, albeit as an "imperfect and temporary mechanism," to remedy segregation. But within days white congressmen and state legislators (Democratic and Republican) with white constituencies began to speak out against' 'forced busing." Most Democrats soon renounced the party's original resolution or sought to avoid comment on the issue altogether . Ironically, defendant attorney general Frank Kelley signed the original Democratic party resolution but then spent his next campaign explaining away his signature as he personally led the attack on Judge Roth's decision in the appellate courts. The state and local defendants immediately appealed the violation ruling to the Sixth Circuit rather than await a final remedy order. At the October 4 conference, the courtroom was packed with local and national reporters, black and white spectators, and attorneys monitoring the proceeding on behalf of white suburban interests. Judge Roth would never again hold a press conference after his earlier fiasco. But his public notice of the October 4 hearing showed that he was not unaware of the human drama that was unfolding before him. Surveying the assembled crowd and the attorneys for all parties, including the state defendants, he stated from the bench: As I indicated at the close of my opinion recently rendered, I thought it would be advisable for me to get together with counsel on this occasion so that we might chart our course from here on in these proceedings. The Court has made its determination of things as they are, or as it 74 Metropolitan Conversion in the Lower Courts 75 found things in the public school system of the City of Detroit. Our concern now-to take a thought from Aristotle-is of things as they might be, or ought to be.... As the court indicated during the course of the taking of proofs, it entertains serious reservations about a plan of integration, which encompasses no more than the public schools of the City of Detroit. It appears to us that perhaps only a plan which embraces all or some of the greater Detroit metropolitan area can hope to succeed in giving our children the kind of education they are entitled to constitutionally. And we note here that the metropolitan area is like a giant jig-saw puzzle, with the school districts cut into irregular pieces, but with the picture quite plainly that of racial segregation. . . . I would sum up our endeavors in developing a metropolitan plan as an embarkation on an uncharted course in strange waters in an effort to rescue disadvantaged children. It behooves us to take proper soundings and proceed with care. To use the vernacular, "Right on!" but steady as we go. Judge Roth concluded the conference by ordering the Detroit board to submit within thirty days an evaluation of the so-called magnet plan that he had previously ordered and "a plan for the desegregation of its schools within sixty days. " He also ordered the state defendants to "submit a metropolitan plan of desegregation within 120 days" and gave the other parties "an additional thirty days in which to submit objections and/or alternate plans. " Judge Roth again deferred ruling on Alex Ritchie's motion to join the suburban school districts as defendants: We haven't come to that pass yet. ... [But] I do not propose to stop the voice of anybody who is apt to be affected by the plan. So this is a matter of mechanics ... when the time comes. The superintendents of suburban schools immediately met in groups to confer with their attorneys. Scores of white rallies to...