It wasn't until after WWII, when returning black veterans tried to buy homes in Detroit, that push came to shove and blacks were finally able to buy homes in historically white neighborhoods. Prior to this, there were covenants that when you bought a house, you would not be able to sell it to a black person. These coventants were upheld by the courts until after WWII. With historically black neighorhoods like Paradise Valley and Black Bottom area overpopulated, this change allowed black families to move into areas of Detroit that were historically white. And there was housing demand for blacks, too. Black neighborhoods were already overpopulated, people were moving up to Detroit from down South, and black neighborhoods were being torn down to build freeways and housing projects. These people all needed someplace to live.
Our neighborhood on Wilshire Street, even after the 1967 uprising, was still all-white. My Aunt Geneva says she read an article in one of the Detroit papers that described our neighborhood as "idyllic, lily-white." But this was not to be for very long.
One of the great things about our old neighborhood was that it was built before air conditioning became popular, so most of the houses had front porches. During the summer months, people would get home from work, have dinner, then sit on thier front porches with thier families. The houses were fairly close together, so neighbors would often yell over a couple houses away, speak directly with their next-door neighbors, or stop in an talk to thier neighbors when taking a walk around the block or something. Everybody seemed to know everybody that way.
One evening, when I was maybe 8 or 9 or 10, I was over at my Grandpa Bieke's front porch, and a neighbor came by an told him a black family just moved in on Longview Street, only 2 streets away from Wilshire. This created a lot of buzz that evening, my grandpa calling over to other neighbors, with several of them congregating on my Grandpa's front porch and steps. My Grandpa seemd to know alot about alot of things, an he spoke quite clearly with his prophesy: within a very short time the whole neighborhood would be all black and crime would increase. In essence, the end was near for the neighborhood. He said the thing to do was get out now, while you can.
I hate to say this, but his prophesy turned out to be correct.
It couldn't have been within a 5, maybe ten year period, that virtually all of the old neighbors moved out to the suburbs, and black families moved in.
What caused my grandpa to prophesize this sequence of events? I suppose for two reasons. First, he had several paint stores in the city, so he probably talked with a lot of customers about what was happening in the city. No doubt this change was happening in other parts of the city and his customers talked about it. Secondly, he probably saw firsthand how his old neighborhood (Field/Baldwin Streets) changed and figured it would happen on Wilshire, too. By the time our neighborhood had a black family in it, I suspect there had already been several neighborhoods in Detroit that had already undergone this change. I suspect these earlier changes probably occured more slowly than in our neighborhood, though. But by the time it got to our neighborhood a pattern had already been established, so it was easier for people to see the writing on the wall.
There was some incentive to be the first white to move out of a neighborhood, too. The first one out probably got full value for thier house, while the last people out probably got half the value of their house. I wonder how the Bologna's fared, after buying the the houses on either side of them to protect thier own home's value? Was that like throwing money away? Regardless, there was also the issue of suburban home prices. The longer you waited to get out, the more expensive the suburban houses would be because of higher demand. So, even if a person wasn't racist, it just made economic sense to move out in the first wave.
If we think about this some more, we might be able to classify people in one of four waves: early emigrants, mainstream emigrants, late emigrants, and those who stayed. My guess us the early emigrants probably left for the economic reasons as stated above. The mainstream leavers probably tolerated the neighborhood changing for a while, but saw the inevitability of the negative changes. The late leavers probably waited until they were victims of crime or saw their home values drop so low they felt they had no choice but to leave. The people who stayed probably couldn't leave, for whatever reason. Maybe some people figured they'd leave at the first job opportunity to get out of the city, maybe until the last of their kids got out of grade school, whatever. These are all my classifications, my own guesses, I don't have any data to support or refute this classification scheme.
I wonder about the characteristics about the black families that moved into the neighborhood? Maybe the first wave were people of relative means, moving into our neighborhood for them was like moving into the suburbs maybe? As property values decreased then, and more houses became vacant, people of lower means moved in? Again, I don't have any data to support or refute this idea.
It is clear though, that turnover in the neighborhood increased significantly after that.
Our neighborhood on Wilshire Street, even after the 1967 uprising, was still all-white. My Aunt Geneva says she read an article in one of the Detroit papers that described our neighborhood as "idyllic, lily-white." But this was not to be for very long.
One of the great things about our old neighborhood was that it was built before air conditioning became popular, so most of the houses had front porches. During the summer months, people would get home from work, have dinner, then sit on thier front porches with thier families. The houses were fairly close together, so neighbors would often yell over a couple houses away, speak directly with their next-door neighbors, or stop in an talk to thier neighbors when taking a walk around the block or something. Everybody seemed to know everybody that way.
One evening, when I was maybe 8 or 9 or 10, I was over at my Grandpa Bieke's front porch, and a neighbor came by an told him a black family just moved in on Longview Street, only 2 streets away from Wilshire. This created a lot of buzz that evening, my grandpa calling over to other neighbors, with several of them congregating on my Grandpa's front porch and steps. My Grandpa seemd to know alot about alot of things, an he spoke quite clearly with his prophesy: within a very short time the whole neighborhood would be all black and crime would increase. In essence, the end was near for the neighborhood. He said the thing to do was get out now, while you can.
I hate to say this, but his prophesy turned out to be correct.
It couldn't have been within a 5, maybe ten year period, that virtually all of the old neighbors moved out to the suburbs, and black families moved in.
What caused my grandpa to prophesize this sequence of events? I suppose for two reasons. First, he had several paint stores in the city, so he probably talked with a lot of customers about what was happening in the city. No doubt this change was happening in other parts of the city and his customers talked about it. Secondly, he probably saw firsthand how his old neighborhood (Field/Baldwin Streets) changed and figured it would happen on Wilshire, too. By the time our neighborhood had a black family in it, I suspect there had already been several neighborhoods in Detroit that had already undergone this change. I suspect these earlier changes probably occured more slowly than in our neighborhood, though. But by the time it got to our neighborhood a pattern had already been established, so it was easier for people to see the writing on the wall.
There was some incentive to be the first white to move out of a neighborhood, too. The first one out probably got full value for thier house, while the last people out probably got half the value of their house. I wonder how the Bologna's fared, after buying the the houses on either side of them to protect thier own home's value? Was that like throwing money away? Regardless, there was also the issue of suburban home prices. The longer you waited to get out, the more expensive the suburban houses would be because of higher demand. So, even if a person wasn't racist, it just made economic sense to move out in the first wave.
If we think about this some more, we might be able to classify people in one of four waves: early emigrants, mainstream emigrants, late emigrants, and those who stayed. My guess us the early emigrants probably left for the economic reasons as stated above. The mainstream leavers probably tolerated the neighborhood changing for a while, but saw the inevitability of the negative changes. The late leavers probably waited until they were victims of crime or saw their home values drop so low they felt they had no choice but to leave. The people who stayed probably couldn't leave, for whatever reason. Maybe some people figured they'd leave at the first job opportunity to get out of the city, maybe until the last of their kids got out of grade school, whatever. These are all my classifications, my own guesses, I don't have any data to support or refute this classification scheme.
I wonder about the characteristics about the black families that moved into the neighborhood? Maybe the first wave were people of relative means, moving into our neighborhood for them was like moving into the suburbs maybe? As property values decreased then, and more houses became vacant, people of lower means moved in? Again, I don't have any data to support or refute this idea.
It is clear though, that turnover in the neighborhood increased significantly after that.
Good stuff. Thanks for picking your BLOG back up and writing again.
ReplyDeleteDear Grandpa,
ReplyDeleteMy family was among those blacks who moved to the LaSalle Blvd/ Linwood area on the Northwest Side in the early 50's. The first wave of Jewish families moved to the suburbs in droves, even then. At first there were mainly profess-ionals(doctors, lawyers, judges, teachers, nurses, etc., politi-cians,business people residents. Lovely neighborhood, beautifully kept. Eventually, mostly African American. Then, "urban renewal" happened, uprooting lots of black families from Black Bottom, Paradise Valley and the Central City area where the Ford Freeway was built. There were also economically challenged white families moving onto the side streets, i.e., Taylor, Hazelwood, Dexter, etc. It was not a particular color or shading of our neighborhood that caused its eventual disintegration -- it was a variety of socio-economic factors, lack of pride and respect by tenants renting properties, and slum landlords who cared more about $$$ than the caliber of people they rented to. There were always certain sections of the city where poor whites lived in neighborhoods that glaringly reflected their level of poverty and apathy. In other words, it's not a "black" thing that changed your neighborhood; it was more likely a "ghetto-mentality" thing, which is an equal opportunity social disorder.
Thank you for taking the time to publish this information very useful! https://www.frenchyagent.com/
ReplyDelete