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“The Metropolitan Moment: Municipal Boundaries, Segregation, and Civil Rights Possibilities in the American North” by Michael Gray Savage A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Michael Gray Savage 2018 “The Metropolitan Moment: Municipal Boundaries, Segregation, and Civil Rights Possibilities in the American North” Michael Gray Savage Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2018 Abstract Exploring battles over school desegregation in metropolitan Boston, Detroit, and Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s, “The Metropolitan Moment” examines how black and white city dwellers at odds over integration within the city pursued – and sometimes allied over – efforts that crossed municipal lines to incorporate the suburbs in desegregation remedies. Though possessing divergent motivations, such as the white tactical aim of ensuring white majorities in all area schools by enlarging the desegregation area and the black desire for improved educational opportunities, both groups sought access to white suburban schools and at times acted together in court in an attempt to implement metropolitan desegregation. The search for such solutions opened a “metropolitan moment” across the urban North in the late 1960s and early 1970s when proposed regional remedies offered real possibilities of heading off white flight, fostering interracial coalitions, and substantively combatting segregation. Though this moment was foreclosed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1974 decision in Milliken v. Bradley – a case prompted in part by just such a surprising urban black-white alliance in Detroit – its legacies, including suburban anti-busing movements that helped fuel the rise of the New Right and the transformation of the Democratic Party, and the larger retreat from metropolitan solutions to metropolitan dilemmas of race, schooling, services, and inequality, echo down to today. The ii findings complicate several historiographies pertaining to the long civil rights movement, post- World War II urban and suburban history, the rise of the right, and representations of the “busing” controversy. Throughout, “The Metropolitan Moment” broadens the conception of the municipal reformer to include both ordinary black parents and white reactionaries. iii Acknowledgments Over the years spent writing and researching this dissertation, I have benefitted from the support and suggestions of friends and colleagues. The idea for this project first took shape at the University of Calgary. My MA advisor, Frank Towers, deserves especial thanks for inspiring me to go to graduate school and, on more than once occasion, for convincing me of the value of academic pursuits. At the University of Toronto the supervision of Russell Kazal has benefitted this dissertation greatly. Russ has been extremely helpful in asking the right type of questions and sharpening the dissertation’s analytical rigor. Thanks as well to the other members of my dissertation committee, Rick Halpern and Michael Wayne, for their support and suggestions throughout the process. Thanks as well to those participating in this dissertation’s defense, Matthew Farish, Sean Mills, Mary Nyquist, and Thomas Sugrue. I am indebted to the camaraderie and suggestions of a remarkable group of friends and colleagues in Toronto and Calgary. Thank you to Yuri Beaulieu, Ryan Buchanan, Matt Bucholtz, Susie Colbourn, Justin Douglas, Alyson Fortowsky, Glenn Iceton, Kassandra Luciuk, Steve McClellan, Shannon Murray, Erica Toffoli, and Gavin Wiens. Finally, my deepest gratitude to Lyndsay Vanderveer for her love and support. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ...........................................................................................................................v List of Appendices ........................................................................................................................ vi List of Abbreviations in the Notes ............................................................................................. vii Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Envisioning School Desegregation in Metropolitan Boston, 1963-1966 ...............34 Chapter 2 Before Busing: Tactical Metropolitanism in Boston, 1966-1974 ...........................74 Chapter 3 Three Constituencies of Metropolitan Reform: Confronting School Desegregation in Philadelphia, 1961-1974 ..........................................................................119 Chapter 4 Divergent Motivations, Similar Results: Integrationists, Segregationists, and the Development of Detroit’s Metropolitan School Desegregation Order, 1964-1972 ...172 Chapter 5 Preserving Suburban and Sectional Distinctions: Antibusing in Detroit’s Suburbs, 1971-1974 ...............................................................................................................219 Chapter 6 In Milliken’s Shadow: Metropolitan School Desegregation in Boston in the Busing Era .............................................................................................................................263 Chapter 7 In the Shadow of Milliken and Boston: The Death of Metropolitanism and the Futility of Intra-City Desegregation in Detroit and Philadelphia ..............................317 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................359 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................376 Appendices ..................................................................................................................................392 v List of Appendices A.1 Map of Detroit’s metropolitan remedy ordered in Bradley v. Milliken 392 A.2 Map of Greater Boston School Districts and METCO participation, 393 ca. September 1986 vi List of Abbreviations in the Notes BVM: Bradley v. Milliken Case Files, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan CAR: Carmen A. Roberts Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan CCC: Citywide Coordinating Council Records, Archives and Manuscripts Division, John J. Burns Library, Boston College CCPE: Citizens Committee on Public Education in Philadelphia Records, Urban Archives, Temple University CEC: Citywide Educational Coalition Records, Archives and Special Collections, Northeastern University DB: Don Binkowski Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan DCCR: Detroit Commission on Community Relations/Human Rights Department Records, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University DPM: Democratic Party of Michigan Records, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan DPS: The Detroit Public Schools Community Relations Division Collection, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University FC: Fellowship Commission Records, Urban Archives, Temple University FH: Freedom House, Inc. Records, Archives and Special Collections, Northeastern University FJM: Frank J. Miranda Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Northeastern University FL: Floyd L. Logan Papers, Urban Archives, Temple University HO: Helen Oakes Papers, Urban Archives, Temple University HSC: Home and School Council Records, Urban Archives, Temple University JGO: James G. O’Hara Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan JJM: Congressman John Joseph Moakley Papers, Moakley Archive and Institute, Suffolk University JTK: John T. Kelsey Files, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan LDH: Louise Day Hicks Papers, City of Boston Archives and Records Center vii LWV-DD: League of Women Voters of Dearborn-Dearborn Heights Records, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan LWV-P: League of Women Voters of Philadelphia Records, The Pennsylvania Historical Society METCO: Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. Records, Archives and Special Collections, Northeastern University NAACP-D: NAACP Detroit Branch Collection, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University NAACP-LOC: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Records, Library of Congress PMR: Phyllis M. Ryan Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Northeastern University RB: Papers of Ruth Batson, Radcliffe Institute, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University RD: Richardson Dilworth Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania SCSD: School Committee Secretary Desegregation Files, City of Boston Archives and Records Center SW: Shirley Wohlfield Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan UL: Urban League of Philadelphia Records, Urban Archives, Temple University WAG: Garrity, W. Arthur, Jr.: Papers on the Boston Schools Desegregation Case, Archives and Special Collections, University of Massachusetts Boston WPSC: West Philadelphia Schools Committee Records., Urban Archives, Temple University viii Introduction In a Michigan courtroom in 1971, a white parents’ group that formed the previous year to oppose school integration, the Citizens’ Committee for Better Education (CCBE), made an argument that was adopted by the plaintiff National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and soon accepted by the court.