City of Detroit joins community, state & local historic officials dedicate national historical marker honoring Sojourner Truth Homes

• Event commemorates site of massive 1942 riot against Black residents moving into a new neighborhood 
• Sojourner Truth Homes is one of 14 Detroit sites on the National Register of Historic Places that were recommended by the City of Detroit Civil Rights Advisory Committee 

Today, City and state officials dedicated a marker denoting the Sojourner Truth Homes’ inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic value.” The event was held at the site of the Sojourner Truth Homes at the corner of Nevada and Fenelon. Attendees included Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, City Historian Jamon Jordan, and members of the Detroit City Council. 

 The Sojourner Truth Marker is one of 14 sites recommended by the City of Detroit Civil Rights Advisory Board. The last dedication was of the Birwood Wall, a six-foot high one-foot thick, half-mile-long barrier built to separate a white neighborhood from a Black one. https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/state-historical-marker-serves-reminder-detroits-segregationist-past. 

"While there is a movement in some parts of the country to suppress black history, we honor it in Detroit,” Mayor Duggan said. “The Sojourner Truth homes have deep meaning in our city and across America for being the site of one of the most important stands against housing discrimination. Dedicating this marker today recognizing the brave Black factory workers who successfully defended their right to live in these homes, makes this a special day." 

SOJOURNER TRUTH HOMES 

The Sojourner Truth Homes were built specifically for Black auto workers who were essential in war production factories in and around the city of Detroit, which was serving as the Arsenal of Democracy. But the project became the site of an historic battle against housing discrimination against African American Detroiters.  

The story of what happened at the Sojourner Truth homes is a familiar one that played out for years during and after World War II. In 1941, Black workers were essential in war production factories in and around the city of Detroit, which was serving as the Arsenal of Democracy, which turned its factories into providers of equipment for the war effort. However, finding adequate housing for Black workers in Detroit was a problem. So the federal government, specifically, the United States Housing Authority, which was responsible for building housing projects for Black workers, began building the Sojourner Truth Homes to Black workers in the factories producing defense materials. 

Unlike Detroit’s Brewster Homes, the Sojourner Truth Homes were not adjacent to Black Bottom or Paradise Valley. Instead, it was next to a largely Polish neighborhood filled with warehouses and factories and an area that now exists as East Davison Village, Banglatown, the nearly all white neighborhood of Krainz Woods,  and the largely Black working and middle class neighborhood of Conant Gardens. 

Federal officials initially believed that the site being bordered by an industrial area and an African American neighborhood would keep white protests to a minimum. 

They were wrong. 

Polish-American U.S. Rep. Rudolph Tenerowicz organized the white communities in Krainz Woods and neighboring areas into a group called the Seven Mile-Fenelon Association, formed solely to block Black people from moving in the largely white area. The group even persuaded some Black residents of Conant Gardens to join their cause by convincing them that their home values would decrease if poor Black people were allowed to live there. This group convinced City officials to change the designation of the Sojourner Truth Homes from housing for Black workers to housing reserved for white residents only. Black protests and labor unions convinced the federal government to continue with its original plan. So the white Seven Mile-Fenelon Association physically attempted to stop Black residents from moving in. 

In February 1942, Black Detroiters confronted whites people blocking entry into their homes. Police, instead of arresting the whites who were breaking the law, arrested Black people.  Mayor Edward Jeffries then stopped any Black people from moving into the housing project. After vigorous protests by Black Detroit residents, the federal government again intervened and ordered the city to allow African Americans to move into the homes.  Protected by National Guard troops, Black workers move into the Sojourner Truth Homes in April 1942.  

“You can’t move forward in life without understanding your history,” said Detroit Historian Jamon Jordon. “I’m proud that I live in a city that has played such an important role in the national movement for housing rights for Black Americans and that isn’t afraid to elevate that history, even when it isn’t pleasant. That history played out right here at the Sojouner Truth Homes.”  

 More than 60 years later, in 2017, a group of historians, community leaders, and representatives from organizations and institutions across Detroit came together to form the City of Detroit Civil Rights Advisory Committee. Its purpose was to recommend sites in Detroit that were important in the history of the African American Civil Rights Movement. The group cited more than 60 places that should awarded grants and recognition by the National Park Service.  

That committee comprised: Marsha Battle Philpot, writer & Historian; Carolyn Carter, Wayne State Community College District; Kenneth Coleman, historian and journalist; DeWitt Dykes Jr., History Professor, Oakland University; Karen Hudson Samuels, Journalist and Executive Director, WGPR-TV Historical Society; and Jamon Jordan, Educator & Historian, Black Scroll Network History & Tours, now City of Detroit Historian. 

“Often the stories from the civil rights struggle of Black Americans are hidden or simply removed from our history. Such is the case of the Sojourner Truth Homes project, which would be lost to history if it weren’t for the diligent work of the City of Detroit Civil Rights Advisory Committee,” said Councilman Scott Benson. “I am proud to support this project, which will result in 14 sites around Detroit being named to the National Register of Historic Places. Detroit is a consequential American city and it is important to honor our history.”  

The committee’s work resulted in 14 sites in Detroit being added to the National Register of Historic Places. Now that the Sojourner Truth Homes are listed on the National Register, the City of Detroit’s Historic Designation Advisory Board (HDAB) has concluded that the Detroit City Council should designate the site as well as the adjoining neighborhood of Krainz Woods as an official City Historic District. The city has dozens of historic districts now. The word "district" refers to an area or group of areas, site(s), building(s), structure(s) or archeological site(s), not necessarily with contiguous boundaries. Detroit's ordinance provides that all designated areas are referred to as districts whether they contain one building or many. A historic district can be a building, street, area or entire neighborhood.