Bishop School, also known as the Bishop Union School and Old Bishop School, was a public school in Detroit. [1] [2] Students included African Americans and members of The Purple Gang, a predominantly Russian Jewish criminal gang. [3] [4]
Levi Bishop, the president of the Detroit Board of Education, saw a need to create a new union school as opposed to a high school. Though there was disagreement within the Board of Education, Bishop Union School was established in July 1858 and named after Levi Bishop. [5] It was the third union school built by the Detroit Board of Education, [6] and it served kindergarten to 8th grade and had a pool, baths, a clinic, a dental clinic, and a "Foreign Room". [7]
In 1894 the school was described as having a great variety of nationalities. [8] A 1914 report described the school as serving mostly Jewish students and stated that much of their education was done at the library with students "completing their education in a year and a half." Other Detroit schools served mostly Italian or Polish students. [9] The school was one of those selected for a program to "Americanize" Jewish community members and teach them English as well as assist them with naturalization papers. [10]
Cora Brown, the first African American woman elected state senator in the United States, attended Bishop School. [11] The Kaufmanns, businessmen in Detroit, attended the school. [12]
Yusef Lateef recorded the song Bishop School on his 1969 Atlantic Records album Yusef Lateef's Detroit.
Yusef Abdul Lateef was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Community in the United States.
Walter Philip Reuther was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He considered labor movements not as narrow special interest groups but as instruments to advance social justice and human rights in democratic societies. He leveraged the UAW's resources and influence to advocate for workers' rights, civil rights, women's rights, universal health care, public education, affordable housing, environmental stewardship and nuclear nonproliferation around the world. He believed in Swedish-style social democracy and societal change through nonviolent civil disobedience. He cofounded the AFL-CIO in 1955 with George Meany. He survived two attempted assassinations, including one at home where he was struck by a 12-gauge shotgun blast fired through his kitchen window. He was the fourth and longest serving president of the UAW, serving from 1946 until his death in 1970.
Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-largest university with nearly 24,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Wayne State University, along with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, compose the University Research Corridor of Michigan. Wayne State is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
Black Bottom was a predominantly black neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. The term has sometimes been used to apply to the entire neighborhood including Paradise Valley, but many consider the two neighborhoods to be separate. Together, Black Bottom and Paradise Valley were bounded by Brush Street to the west, the Grand Trunk railroad tracks to the east, south to the Detroit River, and bisected by Gratiot Avenue. The area north of Gratiot Avenue to Grand Boulevard was defined as Paradise Valley.
Tracy William McGregor was a humanitarian, philanthropist, and Detroit civic leader. He established the McGregor Fund of Michigan in 1925 with a gift of $5,000, one of Michigan's first charitable foundations. He successfully ran the Mission for Homeless Men in Detroit from 1891 until it closed its doors in 1935, first as supervisor and then as a managing trustee. In 1917, he helped organize the Detroit Community Union and Patriotic Fund, forerunners of today's United Community Services. Tracy and his business associates began the Provident Loan and Savings Society, which provided loans at low interest rates. He also helped create the Thursday Noon Group, which met to discuss important community issues like justice in the courts and prisons. McGregory became a trustee and financial supporter of the Merrill-Palmer Institute in Detroit and several universities.
The Bernard Ginsburg House is a single-family private residence located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Brush Park district. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
Arthur F. Lederle was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Maurice Sugar was an American political activist and labor attorney. He is best remembered as the General Counsel of the United Auto Workers Union from 1937 to 1946.
The Detroit Institute of Musical Arts (DIMA) was a music conservatory in Detroit, Michigan that was actively providing higher education in music from 1914 to 1970.
The Purple Gang, also known as the Sugar House Gang, was a criminal mob of bootleggers and hijackers composed predominantly of Jewish gangsters. They operated in Detroit, Michigan, during the 1920s of the Prohibition era and came to be Detroit's dominant criminal gang. Excessive violence and infighting caused the gang to destroy itself in the 1930s.
Charles Hotchkiss Campbell was an American football player, lawyer, and civic leader in Detroit, Michigan. He was a graduate of the University of Michigan where he played college football for the 1879 Michigan Wolverines football team, the first football team to represent the University of Michigan.
Yusef Lateef's Detroit is an album by multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef recorded in 1969 and released on the Atlantic label.
Jews have been living in Metro Detroit since it was first founded, and have been prominent in all parts of life in the city. The city has a rich Jewish history, but the Jewish community has also seen tensions and faced anti-Jewish backlash. Today, the Jewish community is quite established and has a number of community organizations and institutions, based nearly completely outside Detroit city limits.
Josephine Fellows Gomon was a social and political activist, mayoral secretary, labor leader and schoolteacher. She is noted for her contributions to Detroit, Michigan through city politics, civil service and activism.
The Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, located on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, contains millions of primary source documents related to the labor history of the United States, urban affairs, and the Wayne State University Archives. The building is named for UAW President and Congress of Industrial Organizations President Walter Reuther.
Myra K. Wolfgang was a Canadian-born American labor leader and women's rights activist in Detroit from the 1930s through the 1970s. She was most active in the labor movement, advocating for the working poor and women in the workforce.
Charles Ernest Chadsey was an American educator and school administrator. He served as superintendent of city schools in Chicago, Detroit, Denver, and Durango.
Kathleen Nagler Straus served as a member of the Michigan State Board of Education from 1993–2016. She has been continuously involved in civic organizations in Michigan, since moving to Detroit in 1952. Her volunteer and professional roles have included the Presidency of the League of Women Voters of Detroit, Executive Director of People and Responsible Organizations (PRO) for Detroit, President of the Michigan State Board of Education, and Secretary of the National Association of State Boards of Education.
Burt Township School District is a school district headquartered in the community of Grand Marais in the U.S. state of Michigan. The district serves the entirety of Burt Township. The district covers a very large area of 238.57 square miles (617.89 km2) in northeastern Alger County.
Phillip Stollman was a Soviet-born American real estate developer, Zionist, and philanthropist who co-founded the Biltmore Development Company.