DETROIT – Detroit’s significant role in the growth of the civil rights movement was recognized by the National Park Service when five locations were added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Birwood Wall, the New Bethel Baptist Church, Rosa L. and Raymond Parks Flat, the Shrine of the Black Madonna of the Pan-African Orthodox Christian Church, and the WGPR TV studio were added to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) list of historic places , added) announced last week.
“These places are linked to both the struggles and the successes of the Detroit African American community during the volatile mid-20th century,” Martha MacFarlane-Faes, assistant officer for the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), said in a statement.
The civil rights movement in the northern United States was as much about African American equality as it was in the south, she said. The newly listed websites “embody the multiple problems that the Black Community faced while working towards empowerment during this time.”
Please see below for more details on each historic site.
Located along the alley between Birwood Avenue and Mendota Street from Eight Mile Road to Pembroke Avenue in Detroit, Birwood Wall is one of five Michigan locations that were recently added to the National Register of Historic Places around Detroit’s role to be recognized in the civil rights movement.MEDC
Birwood Wall is tied to federal redlining policy, which, according to the publication, ensured the neighborhoods would remain racially segregated in the mid-20th century.
The six foot high, three block long concrete wall was erected in 1941 to physically separate two growing parts of the city: one white and one black.
“It’s a seldom-preserved, tangible example of how willing the government, the real estate profession, private developers and white residents have been to keep the neighborhoods separate,” the press release said. “Redlining meant that African Americans rarely qualified for federal mortgage loans and were therefore denied participation in the American dream of home ownership that marked the postwar era.”
The wall can be seen from the Alfonso Wells Memorial Playground on Griggs Street in Detroit.
The New Bethel Baptist Church, located at 8430 Linwood St., Detroit, is one of five Michigan sites recently added to the National Register of Historic Places to recognize Detroit’s role in the civil rights movement.MEDC
The New Bethel Baptist Church is affiliated with The Rev. CL Franklin and the leadership the church showed in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
“Franklin was a talented and influential pastor whose radio broadcast and recordings achieved national followings,” the press release said.
Franklin supported Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and founded the March “Walk to Freedom” in Detroit in 1963. It was the first major civil rights march in the nation’s history.
It was in the church that Aretha Franklin began her musical career.
Rosa L. and Raymond Parks Flat, 3201-3203 Virginia Park St., Detroit, is one of five Michigan locations recently added to the National Register of Historic Places to recognize Detroit’s role in the civil rights movement.MEDC
Rosa Parks’ Detroit home and husband Raymond Parks became a hub for their continued activism after they refused to give their bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955.
The actions of Rosa Parks in Alabama “changed the course of civil rights history and turned national attention to discriminatory practices,” the press release said. But she and her husband were harassed afterwards, causing them to move north and settle in Detroit, where Rosa Parks had family.
The couple lived in the ground floor apartment of this maisonette from 1961 to 1988. The apartment has become a center for meetings and discussions on civil rights, according to the press release.
Rosa Parks served as an aid to Congressman John Conyers Jr. and attended numerous civil rights events while advocating for African American equality under the law. In the late 1960s, she joined Detroit’s leaders in the Black Power movement. In 1987, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to promote youth education and leadership.
(This property remains a private residence.)
The Pan-African Orthodox Christian Church’s Black Madonna Shrine at 7625 Linwood St. in Detroit is one of five Michigan sites recently added to the National Register of Historic Places to recognize Detroit’s role in the civil rights movement.MEDC
Commonly known as the Shrine of the Black Madonna, the church was founded by Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. (later known as Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman) who was a nationally recognized civil rights leader, Black Nationalism Movement advocate, and community organizer in Detroit, according to of publication.
“Cleage campaigned for African American unity and campaigned for separatism versus integration. Cleage believed that blacks should actively develop their own power structures instead of waiting for traditional white society to grant them their rights, ”the press release said.
On Easter Sunday 1967, Cleage renamed the Central Congregational Church as the Shrine of the Black Madonna and unveiled an 18-foot mural of a Black Madonna and Child commissioned by black artist Glanton Dowdell.
He urged “blacks to adopt a new worldview that is not based on accepted white norms,” the press release said.
The sanctuary became one of the largest and most influential Black Nationalist churches in the country, with locations in Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, Calhoun Falls, SC, as well as Monrovia and Ganta City in Liberia. According to the publication, the mural remains a landmark of the civil rights movement.
“We are honored to receive this national historic landmark award,” said Bishop Mbiyu Chui of the Shrine of the Black Madonna in a statement. “We continue to build on and expand the legacy of our beloved Founder. He dedicated his life and ministry to the mission of transforming urban ghettos into Christian communities to achieve equality, justice and freedom for his people at home and abroad. “
The WGPR TV studio, 3146 East Jefferson Ave. in Detroit, is one of five Michigan locations recently added to the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of Detroit’s role in the civil rights movement.MEDC
WGPR-TV, founded by attorney William R. Banks, was the first black-owned and operated television station in the United States. It debuted in September 1975, a decade after African Americans challenged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for lack of black programming.
“WGPR-TV aired an Afro-centered newscast, dance show, and public affairs features,” the press release said, “and offered career and training opportunities … for black students and professionals.”
The station was sold to CBS in 1995, converted to general programming and changed its callsign to WWJ.
However, the studio retained a high level of integrity from the WGPR TV era, the press release said. Since then, it has been converted into the William V. Banks Broadcast Museum, which records the origins and influence of WGPR.
To be considered for inclusion in the national register, a property must be at least 50 years old, have historical integrity and be relevant to the connection with important people, events or architecture and design. A 14-person civil rights advisory panel nominated the five Detroit locations as part of a competitive grant for the African American civil rights program granted to SHPO by valet parking. The committee included local historians familiar with Detroit’s black history, as well as staff from SHPO and the Detroit City Historical Designation Advisory Board.
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