Feb. 4, 1956: Michigan Chronicle exposes deplorable conditions of Miller High School

On this day in 1956, the first in a series of stories regarding deplorable conditions at predominately African-American Miller High School, Charles J. Wartman of the Michigan Chronicle points out that “approximately 100 parents and civic leaders from the Miller area protested the second-class treatment now being meted out to students of Miller High School.

The Miller High School Community Club complained of the size of the lunchroom; the fact the kitchen has no exit; the inadequacy of the boys’ gym; deficient classroom lighting and other worn out facilities…many have felt that the Detroit Board of Education has allowed the Miller program to deteriorate because of its location and because of the students it serves.”

Located at 2322 DuBois in the Black Bottom community, Miller will close as a high school in 1957 and serve junior high students until it is mothballed in 2007 due to declining enrollment.

  Black Bottom, Detroit Board of Education, DPS, Miller High School

Ken Coleman

Ken Coleman, the author of On this Day: African-American Life in Detroit, is a native Detroiter and former news reporter. He served on the Detroit Charter Revision Commission. He lives in Detroit with his wife, Kim Trent, and their son, Jackson Coleman.

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