This historic gem of a map comes from the Reuther Library and Archives, “Community Councils Manual, Dec. 1953” (page 5) published by the Detroit Federation of Community Councils. I’ve been diving into neighborhood histories and came across mentions of a “Midtown Community Council” in the 1950s and had to dig in further.

The Detroit Federation of Community Councils was an association of 14 community councils in Detroit. United Community Services, which was a precursor to the United Way, sponsored the Federation and its member Councils, and supplied them with professional staff to assist.

The Midtown Community Council was one of those broad neighborhood associations that served an area now represented by the West Grand Boulevard Collaborative. A focus of the Midtown Community Council was activity on 12th Street, promoting positive race relations with new Black residents, and preserving some the Jewish heritage of the area. Council meetings were held at the Grace Episcopal Church, the Duffield Library Branch, and the Jewish Community Council.

A newspaper clipping from the National Jewish Post in 1947 noted that the Jewish Community Council began a study of potential legal action, “to stop the efforts of real estate dealers seeking to capitalize on panic sales among Jewish property owners in the Detroit 12th street district because of an influx of negros.” The Jewish Community Council leadership noted that mass evacuation would harm both Jewish and Black families. The real estate dealers were found to be non-Jewish and were not members of the community.

It’s interesting to find these bits of history where blockbusting tactics associated with real estate redlining were actively harming communities and they were actively trying to find alternatives. This is an important point in the history of 12th street as we think about the long process of racial discrimination that led to the 1967 civil disturbance.