The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Professor Michelle Adams describes the struggles to integrate Detroit’s highly segregated neighborhoods and schools in the 1960s, a federal judge’s ruling to alleviate that segregation by bussing students between the predominately Black schools in Detroit and predominantly white schools in the suburbs, and the Supreme Court’s subsequent 1974 Milliken v. Bradley decision that acknowledged the segregated state of Detroit schools but overturned the “metropolitan remedy,” thereby allowing de facto school segregation to persist today.

Adams is the Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and author of The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North.

Related Resources:
The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North

Related Collections:
Robert E. DeMascio Papers (LP002075)
Detroit Board of Education Detroit Public Schools Records (WSR000681)
Detroit Public Schools Community Relations Division Records (LR000951)
Damon J. Keith Papers (UP001582)
NAACP Detroit Branch Records (UR000244)
Remus Robinson Papers (UP000447)
Wayne State University College of Education, Dean’s Office: Detroit Public Schools Monitoring Commission on Desegregation Records (WSR001371)
Coleman Young Papers (UP000449)

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Michelle Adams
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Remembering the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Beth Widmaier Capo discusses the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center and the role health practitioners there—including her mother—played in empowering women to understand their bodies and take control of their health in the 1970s. Capo is the Edward Capps Professor of Humanities and Professor of English at Illinois College, and author of the article, “The Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center; Or, on Hearing Your Mom Described as ‘The Fucking Bravest Bitch I Knew.’”

Related Resources:
“The Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center; Or, on Hearing Your Mom Described as ‘The Fucking Bravest Bitch I Knew.’”

Related Collections:
Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Beth Widmaier Capo
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

John Miles Branch discusses the National Labor Relations Board’s policy to dismiss union petitions at charitable organizations in the decades following the Second World War, and the policy’s reversal in 1976 when the board acknowledged nonprofit institutions as a “third sector” of the economy linked with the nation’s commercial life.
Branch is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. History at Northwestern University and author of the article, “Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976.”

Related Resources:
“Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976”

Related Collections:
Milton Tambor Papers (LP002342)
Thelma Bernstein Papers (LP000683)

Episode Credits
Interviewee: John Miles Branch
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Talking Archives with AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

In celebration of the Reuther Library’s 50th anniversary, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride reflects on the role the union’s history and archives play in current and future labor actions and organizing campaigns.

Related Resources:
AFSCME History

Related Collections:
AFSCME collections at the Reuther Library

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Elissa McBride
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Coach of Champions: D.L. Holmes and the Making of Detroit’s Track Stars

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Keith Wunderlich shares the life and legacy of D.L. Holmes, athletic director of what is now Wayne State University from 1917 though 1958. With a meager budget and outdated equipment, Coach Holmes nurtured a generation of track and field Olympians and world record holders in Detroit, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religious background. Wunderlich is co-author of Coach of Champions: D.L. Holmes and the Making of Detroit’s Track Stars.

Related Resources:
Coach of Champions: D.L. Holmes and the Making of Detroit’s Track Stars

Related Collections:
Wayne State University Collegian Newspapers (WSR001897)
Wayne State University Yearbooks (WSR002149)

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Keith Wunderlich
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Nick Juravich discusses the experiences of the first-generation of paraprofessional educators in New York City in the 1960s-1980s and their impact on the city’s educational system, community relations, and public sector unions. Juravich is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author of Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education.

Related Resources:
Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education

Related Collections:
AFT President’s Office: Albert Shanker Records
AFT Massachusetts Federation of Teachers Records (LR001071)
Kansas City Federation of Teachers, Local 691 Records (LR000624)
United Educators of San Francisco Local 61 Records (LR000524)

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Nick Juravich
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Oil Can Eddie and the Battle for the Steelworkers’ Union

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Roger Biles and Mark Rose discuss the legacy of Eddie Sadlowski, a charismatic and progressive Chicago steelworker who, unhappy with the United Steelworker of America’s closed-rank authoritarian leadership and tepid support for rank-and-file members, led a highly visible yet unsuccessful dissident campaign in the contentious election for the USWA’s presidency in 1977.

Dr. Biles is a Professor Emeritus of history at Illinois State University. Dr. Rose is a professor of history at Florida Atlantic University. Their article, “’Oil Can Eddie’ and the Battle for the Steelworkers’ Union,” was published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society.

Related Resources:
“’Oil Can Eddie’ and the Battle for the Steelworkers’ Union”

Related Collections:
Edward Sadlowski Papers (LP000754)

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Roger Biles and Mark Rose
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Seeking “Self-Determination” in Detroit: Housing, Race, and the Activism of the West Central Organization, 1964-1971

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Anna E. Lindner discusses the rise and subsequent downfall of the West Central Organization in Detroit, a coalition of civil rights organizations, community groups, and church congregations that sought to bring attention to housing inequality and other social issues in the 1960s. Although founded with good intent, the group’s aggressive lobbying gained short-term results but turned local media and government administrations against them, and the predominantly white liberal leaders in the organization’s first early years struggled to fully understand and address the systemic racism faced by Black Detroiters.

Lindner is an assistant professor of Media & Communication at Nazareth University and author of the essay, “Seeking ‘Self-Determination’ in Detroit: Housing, Race, and the Activism of the West Central Organization, 1964-1971.”

Related Resources:
“Seeking ‘Self-Determination’ in Detroit: Housing, Race, and the Activism of the West Central Organization, 1964-1971”

Related Collections:
(WSR001897) Wayne State University Collegian Newspapers
(WSR001896) Wayne State University South End Newspaper
(LP000255)
David Cohen Papers
(UP000379) Jerome P. Cavanagh Papers

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Anna Lindner
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Schools and the Rise of Mass Incarceration in a Post-Brown World

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Matt Kautz explores how evolving school disciplinary practices, changes in crime reporting, and political pressure in the decades following school desegregation led to the rise of student suspensions, expulsions, dropouts, and the school-to-prison pipeline in Detroit and other cities. Kautz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership and Counseling at Eastern Michigan University. His article “Schools and the Rise of Mass Incarceration in a Post-Brown World,” was published in the Summer 2024 issue of Harvard Educational Review.

Related Resources:
“Schools and the Rise of Mass Incarceration in a Post-Brown World”

Related Collections:
(UR000267) Detroit Commission on Community Relations (DCCR) / Human Rights Department Records
(WSR000681) Detroit Board of Education Detroit Public Schools Records
Wayne State University College of Education, Dean’s Office: Detroit Public Schools Monitoring Commission on Desegregation Records

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Matt Kautz
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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The Worthy Wages Movement for Childcare Workers

~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Justine Modica discusses the Worthy Wages movement centered in Seattle from the 1980s through the 2000s. Affiliated with SEIU, daycare directors and childcare workers in childcare centers and home-based daycares joined together to raise public awareness of the underfunding of daycare and lobby for increased state childcare subsidies, hoping to increase the wages and retention of skilled workers in a lowly-paid but critical field.

Modica is a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in History at Cornell University. She authored the article, “Worthy Wages in the Emerald City: Worker- and Director-Led Childcare Movements in Seattle, 1984–2006,” and is writing a book examining how the government, employers, and families have shaped childcare as wage labor.

Related Resources:
“Worthy Wages in the Emerald City: Worker- and Director-Led Childcare Movements in Seattle, 1984–2006”

Related Collections:
Center for the Child Care Workforce Records

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Justine Modica
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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