The following essays, case studies, and reflections on racializing space were written by teachers and students at the University of Michigan. They are the product of students’ collaborative research with each other and the urban community. As students explored the six main chapters of this website, they created research projects of their own that fit within the themes of this website. Student research has all been edited and peer reviewed before publication.
Coming soon. Student-led research projects might include specific case studies of places that fall within the larger themes of this exhibit:
– School districts and municipal boundaries as tools of segregation in Royal Oak Township. What new forms has segregation in Detroit suburbs taken after Jim Crow?
– Tireman Avenue as racial color line separating an upper middle class Black exclave of Black Bottom from surrounding working class White neighborhoods. What was the experience of residents living at the color line and looking across the street at people physically close but socially distant from them?
– Detroit streets still named after early farmers and colonists who benefited from the slave trade. How can documenting and advocating for renaming streets help residents come to terms with racism as old as this country?
– “Restrictive covenants” and racism still on the books. Thousands of homes in American cities still have “restrictive covenants” written into the property deed that prohibit the White owner from selling to people of different races. These covenants cannot legally be enforced, but they are still on the books. What does mapping the geography of restrictive covenants reveal about racializing space?
