The Containment
Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North
by Michelle Adams
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Pub Date Jan 14 2025 | Archive Date Feb 14 2025
Description
The epic story of Detroit's struggle to integrate schools in its suburbs—and the defeat of desegregation in the North.
In 1974, the Supreme Court issued a momentous decision: In the case of Milliken v. Bradley, the justices brought a halt to school desegregation across the North, and to the civil rights movement’s struggle for a truly equal education for all. How did this come about, and why?
In The Containment, the esteemed legal scholar Michelle Adams tells the epic story of the struggle to integrate Detroit schools—and what happened when it collided with Nixon-appointed justices committed to a judicial counterrevolution. Adams chronicles the devoted activists who tried to uplift Detroit's students amid the upheavals of riots, Black power, and white flight—and how their efforts led to federal judge Stephen Roth’s landmark order to achieve racial balance by tearing down the walls separating the city and its suburbs. The “metropolitan remedy” could have remade the landscape of racial justice. Instead, the Supreme Court ruled that the suburbs could not be a part of the effort to integrate—and thus upheld the inequalities that remain in place today.
Adams tells this story via compelling portraits of a city under stress and of key figures—including Detroit’s first Black mayor, Coleman Young, and Justices Marshall, Rehnquist, and Powell. The result is a legal and historical drama that exposes the roots of today’s backlash against affirmative action and other efforts to fulfill the country's promise.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
“Michelle Adams has written a truly beautiful, intimate, and powerful history of ordinary Detroiters’ determined fight to finally ensure equality of opportunity for Black children. As she makes painfully clear, the educational and residential segregation that came to devastate the country thereafter was not at all inevitable. It was an active choice and a legal betrayal on the part of too many Americans who were on the wrong side of history but whose short-sightedness might yet be undone.” —Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
“It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when the federal courts were committed to the pursuit of racial justice. In her mesmerizing new book, Michelle Adams re-creates the landmark case that shattered that commitment. The Containment is a history you have to read to understand the nation we’ve become.” —Kevin Boyle, National Book Award–winning author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
"Michelle Adams has written the definitive history of Milliken v. Bradley, one of the most important Supreme Court cases of all time. Deeply researched and beautifully written, The Containment fundamentally changes how we understand the history of civil rights. This page-turner illuminates how battles over school desegregation shaped cities and suburbs, and explains why issues like affirmative action remain political battlegrounds today." —Matthew F. Delmont, Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth and author of Half American: The Heroic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad
“How did the United States turn away from the promise of racial integration and quality education? Michelle Adams illuminates the schooling and housing practices in the North that separated whites and Blacks; the judge who tried remedial action; the politicians and justices who halted integration and spurred white flight from cities; and American law and ideals. With compelling narrative and powerful analysis, this important book offers vital instruction and searing reminders of what remains possible.” —Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard Law School
"The lawless Milliken decision was a turning point in American history. It stopped rapid progress toward an integrated society and gave us the segregated, polarized nation we have today. Finally, here is a brilliant analysis of this monumental case, set in a richly compelling historical context, by a leading constitutional scholar." —Myron Orfield, Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights at the University of Minnesota Law School
“In this powerful and eloquent book, Michelle Adams reveals the history of how the Supreme Court undermined the promise of Brown v. Board of Education in a case from the author’s hometown: Detroit. Essential reading for all who care about equality in education.” —Mary L. Dudziak, author of Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall’s African Journey
★ "Riveting . . . Adams’s meticulous recapping of the NAACP’s trial arguments serves as a disturbing window onto how Northern states created and maintained segregation . . . Rich in detail yet sprawling in scope, this shouldn’t be missed." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"In this comprehensive and well-documented history, legal scholar and Detroit native Adams brings the issues and people surrounding the case to life and explains its ongoing impact." —Booklist
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780374250423 |
| PRICE | $35.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 528 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Adam S, Reviewer
I immediately knew I needed to read The Containment when I saw it in the @netgalley catalog. In this book, Michelle Adams details the history of a Supreme Court case that is little known by the average American but, as Adams argues, is crucial for understanding the current state of segregation in the Northern United States.
Milliken v. Bradley was a lawsuit brought by the NAACP in the early 70s against the Detroit public schools and the state of Michigan that alleged not only that the Detroit public schools had been segregated but that the district itself had been segregated from the surrounding suburban districts through a combination of white flight from the city and residential containment of the city’s Black residents.
Two major elements contributed to the extremely controversial nature of the case: The case hinged on the courts accepting that residential segregation necessarily resulted in school segregation, a fact of which the growing conservative judicial movement was extremely skeptical, and its geographically wide ranging allegations raised the specter of “busing,” a favorite child of the 1970’s white backlash to the civil rights movement.
Going into the book, I was a bit worried about the legal jargon I expected from a law professor like Adams, but once I got into the reading I was pleasantly surprised that the writing was not just accessible but actually quite gripping.
The book is divided into three parts: the first focuses on the clash between integrationist and Black separatist ideas of how to improve the Detroit public schools in the 1960s, the second widens out to the broader problem of school desegregation in the North following Brown v. Board of Education, and the third dives into the SCOTUS battle over the case. Of the three sections, it is the third that comes closest to feeling bogged down by legalese, but it continues to be engaging all the way through.
Thank you to @netgalley and @fsgbooks for providing me with an advanced copy. The Containment will be available January 14th, 2025.
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