Abstract
Detroit is a dynamic city with a dynamic history, yet it has come to symbolize both White flight (beginning in the 1940s and accelerating in the late 1960s) and Black flight (beginning in the 1990s and reaching its apex in 2000). While Detroit’s Black population continues to decline, its White population increased by 22% between 2010 and 2015. Along with these shifting demographic trends comes shifting residential and educational landscapes that amplify the racial, economic, and spatial inequalities marking present-day Detroit. Drawing upon the literature of human geography and sociology of education, and utilizing GIS software, we overlay the mapping of demographic realities with the mapping of human stories. As a case study of how a non-profit, public charter school can be a vehicle for resisting gentrification, this paper examines the role of “place” in one school’s navigation of an increasingly gentrified Detroit and its commitment to primarily serving youth of its neighborhood. Using a multimodal and multiscalar approach, we find evidence of endogenous gentrification, intergenerational topophilia, and the school enacting resistance within a dialectic of its market-driven charter school status.
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Notes
As of September 2020 the Boggs School made the difficult decision to relocate from its original location. They are now near the James & Grace Lee Boggs Center for Nurturing Community Leadership in the 48214 zip code, about 2 miles southeast of the school’s original location.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Racial Demographic Data for Detroit
Appendix 2: Map Showing Charter Schools Surrounding the Boggs School (Data-Driven Data, 2015)
Each Blue symbol represents an active charter school.
Appendix 3: Google Map Satellite Image of SWSH/Boggs School
Appendix 4: Racial Demographic Data for the 48207 Zip Code
Appendix 5: 2010 Detroit Racial/Ethnic Population Dotmap by Select Census Block Groups
Appendix 6: Detroit 2016 Racial/Ethnic Population Dotmap by Select Census Block Groups
Appendix 7: A Gentrifying Community Findings
Appendix 8: Detroit 48207 Block Groups, School Age Children (2010)
Appendix 9: Detroit 48207 Block Groups, School Age Children (2016)
Appendix 10: Detroit Block Groups, 2016 Median Household Income
Appendix 11: Detroit 2010–2016 Growth Rate: Households
Appendix 12: Detroit 2010–2016 Growth Rate: Families
Appendix 13: Detroit 2016–2021 Projected Growth Rate: Households
Appendix 14: Detroit 2016–2021 Projected Growth Rate: Families
Appendix 15: Detroit 2016–2021 Projected Growth Rate: Median Household Income
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Bailey-Fakhoury, C., Perhamus, L.M. & Ma, K.M. Feeling Displaced, Enacting Resistance: Race, Place, and Schooling in the Face of Gentrifying Forces. Urban Rev 54, 1–40 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-021-00608-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-021-00608-z