Conant Gardens

Conant Gardens is a historically Black neighborhood in northeast Detroit, Michigan. The neighborhood was once the most exclusive Black neighborhood in that city, and residents of Conant Gardens comprised the most highly educated Black enclave in Detroit.[1]

History

The land where Conant Gardens now lies was once owned by Shubael Conant, an abolitionist and the founder and first president of the Detroit Anti-Slavery Society in 1837.[2] In his will, he stated that, "blacks could purchase or build new homes on his southeastern Detroit property." [3] The area was not densely populated until around 1920, when the automobile industry began to take off. Conant Garden's lack of restrictive covenants and close location to the booming auto industry made it an appealing place for Black professionals to build homes.[2] In the early 1940s the primarily Black, middle-class community protested against the construction of the Sojourner Truth Housing project, a federally funded public housing project, for fear that a public housing project near their neighborhood would bring down their 'exclusive' status.[4] The residents of Conant Gardens allied with nearby white homeowners associations; Thomas J. Sugrue, author of The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, characterizes the alliance as "unlikely."[1] Much like their white, middle-class counterparts, the Black residents of Conant Gardens created restrictive covenants to prevent multiple housing and other "undesirable" circumstances that could impact their status as the most exclusive Black neighborhood in Detroit.[1] In 1966 the Krainz Woods Neighborhood Organization, a mostly white organization, posted, in an African-American newspaper, an advertisement asking for Conant Gardens residents to go to a meeting at an area church to protest a proposed scattered-site housing and open occupancy. The white residents of Krainz Woods wanted to recruit middle-class Blacks in Conant Gardens to oppose public housing.[5]

In 2001 the Conant Gardeners Club was writing a book about the neighborhood.[6] Today, the median household income of the Conant Gardens neighborhood is $28,024, just over half of Michigan's median household income.[7][8]

Cityscape

Conant Gardens is in northeast Detroit, Michigan located just west of Detroit's Krainz Woods neighborhood.[9] Houses were built in a variety of architectural styles including Tudor Revival and the Craftsmen style.[10] It is located between Conant Street and the City of Highland Park, north of the City of Hamtramck. Seven Mile Road served as the boundary between Conant Gardens and a white working class area.[11] The neighborhood boundaries are Conant Street, East Seven Mile, Ryan Road, and East Nevada Street.[6] It is located almost 8 miles (13 km) from Paradise Valley.[9] Due to its close proximity to Krainz Woods that neighboring community is sometimes mistaken as being within Conant Gardens. Pershing High School is located in Conant Gardens,[12] in proximity to the residential area.[6]

Thomas J. Sugrue, author of The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, said that Conant Gardens was "more suburban than urban, surrounded by open fields and remote from the city's business and industrial districts."[1] The neighborhood had single family detached houses, many of which had large lawns. The streets were lined with trees. Sugrue said that the houses were modern, the lawns were "well-manicured" and the streets were "quiet".[1]

The Double V Bar, a jazz hall, opened in 1942. The Club Deliese, a jazz hall which was owned by Jewish people and had an African American manager, opened in 1945. It changed its name to the "Club El-Morocco" three years after its opening. Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert, authors of Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-60, said that the club remained open until at least 1953 and that Deliese was "the more substantial jazz spot of the two."[11]

Demographics

By the 1940s and 1950s, Conant Gardens was relatively well-populated. The residents were primarily Black businesspeople, lawyers, ministers, and teachers.[9] In 1950, in terms of all neighborhoods with over 500 black people, the median income of black families and unrelated individuals of the tracts 603 and 604, respectively, were the highest in Detroit; the tracts correspond to Conant Gardens. That year, 60% of the residents owned their houses.[1] Today, the neighborhood is 90.7% Black, 4.9% Native American, 0.9% White, 0.2% Hispanic or Latino, and 3.3% two or more races.[7] 48.8% of today's neighborhood's residents live below the poverty line, which is higher than the city of Detroit's percentage of the population below the poverty line.[7]

Education

It is zoned to Detroit Public Schools. Residents are zoned to Mason K-8 School for elementary and middle school.[13][14] All residents are zoned to Pershing High School, which has been ranked number 29 of 129 schools in Wayne County for athletics.[15][16] The current Mason school was the former Farwell Elementary-Middle School. The previous Mason Elementary School closed in 2012 and consolidated into Farwell.[17]

Previously Conant Gardens was zoned to Atkinson Elementary School.[18] At a later point it was zoned to Van Zile Elementary School.[19] Residents were previously zoned to Farwell K-8 for middle school.[20][21]

See also

References
  • Bjorn, Lars and Jim Gallert. Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-60. University of Michigan Press, June 22, 2001. ISBN 0472067656, 9780472067657.
  • Shaw, Todd C. Now Is the Time!: Detroit Black Politics and Grassroots Activism. Duke University Press, September 4, 2009. ISBN 0822345080, 9780822345084.
  • Sugrue, Thomas J. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton University Press, August 1, 2005. ISBN 0691121869, 9780691121864.

Notes
  1. Sugrue, p. 41.
  2. "Conant Gardens Historic District".
  3. "Shubael Conant | Biographies". www.elmwoodhistoriccemetery.org. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  4. "Map: Detroit's Black Neighborhoods 1940". DETROITography. 2014-08-13. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  5. Shaw, p. 44.
  6. "Conant Gardens produced talent." The Detroit News. June 20, 2001. Retrieved on November 6, 2012. "It's a little-known and inspiring story and it's going to be told in a book. The Conant Gardens neighborhood near Pershing High School never had restrictive deed covenants limiting land parcels to whites only. So, the neighborhood -- from its beginning -- was a tidy enclave of working-class blacks in comfortable homes. Conant Gardens is bounded by East Seven Mile, East Nevada, Ryan and Conant. The Conant Gardeners club is busy writing a book about[...]" - Also in "Conant Gardens' inspiring past comes alive." The Detroit News. June 28, 2001.
  7. "Conant Gardens Demographics and Statistics". Niche. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  8. "U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Michigan". www.census.gov. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  9. Sugrue, p. 40.
  10. "Conant Gardens - MichMarkers". www.michmarkers.com. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  11. Bjorn and Gallert, p. 68.
  12. "Pershing High alums celebrate 75 years." The Detroit News. April 6, 2005. Retrieved on November 6, 2012. "What made Pershing different was that it was built in the Conant Gardens[...]"
  13. "Elementary Boundaries - 2012/13 School Year." () Detroit Public Schools. Retrieved on November 6, 2012.
  14. "Middle School Boundaries - 2012/13 School Year." () Detroit Public Schools. Retrieved on November 6, 2012.
  15. "2021 Pershing High School Rankings". Niche. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  16. "High School Boundaries - 2012/13 School Year." () Detroit Public Schools. Retrieved on November 6, 2012.
  17. "6.-Mason-Elementary-School.pdf Archived 2015-09-18 at the Wayback Machine." () Detroit Public Schools. Retrieved on November 6, 2012.
  18. "Elementary School Attendance Areas." Detroit Public Schools. July 10, 2003. Retrieved on November 2, 2012.
  19. "Elementary School Boundary Map." Detroit Public Schools. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
  20. "Middle School Boundary Map." Detroit Public Schools. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
  21. "Middle School Attendance Areas." Detroit Public Schools. July 10, 2003. Retrieved on November 2, 2012.

Further reading
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