53 years ago tonight, Martin Luther King, Jr. Spoke at Grosse Pointe South HS
I grew up in Grosse Pointe, and graduated from GP South in 1971. Grosse Pointe has never figured very prominently in major sports at the collegiate level, and particularly at U-M; the idea that either Grosse Pointe South (or North) would boast an elite-level football player on its team was always kind of ridiculous to me.
Of course that's now changed, at least with respect to Will Johnson.
Thinking about Will playing on the same football field that I did (ineptly, on the JV team) I can't help but marvel at how things have changed. Back when I was in school in GP, Will would never have played for South because Grosse Pointe (or the five separate Pointes that comprise "Grosse Pointe") was still all-white. Blacks, Asians, Jews and Hispanics had been historically barred by the Pointes via restrictive covenants, which forbade the sale of any home to a non-white person or family. I think the covenants had been legally done away with by the time I was in high school, but the legacy of exclusion still worked to keep everything lily-white in town.
That brings me to the 53rd anniversary tonight of an event that I attended with my mother: a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. in Grosse Pointe High School, which three years later became Grosse Pointe South.
My parents were strong supporters of the civil rights movement & Dr. King, and in the early '60s followed the movement closely on TV and newspapers and magazines, but I had never attended an event like King's speech myself. Needless to say, it was a momentous event for Grosse Pointe given the racial dynamics involved.
My mother and I anticipated that there would be anti-King protestors in and around the high school, not only opposing his civil rights work but also his stance of open opposition to the bloody and costly war the U.S. was then waging in Viet Nam. We were right, unfortunately.
There was a contingent of 200 very loud protestors from the Detroit-based right-wing extremist group Breakthrough on the sidewalks outside the school, carrying anti-King signs and screaming accusations of treason for his anti-war stance. I'd never seen vitriolic rage like this in adults in person.
Events inside the auditorium mirrored those outside—while King received thunderous applause from the overwhelmingly white audience when he entered, there were a number of anti-King protestors from Breakthrough in the audience, and periodically they would shout "Traitor!" and other epithets as King spoke.
Tensions inside the auditorium continued to mount, and a young protestor was so strident in his shouted denunciations that King invited him up onto the stage to speak his mind to the audience—the photo below show King beckoning the guy up onto the stage. The protestor said he was a U.S. military veteran, and he seemed somewhat taken aback by King's move to invite him to speak.
He spoke into the microphone for a minute or two about Communism & Viet Nam, and after he was done he quietly left the stage. King's non-confrontational move seemed to defuse the charged atmosphere in the auditorium. I don't remember many specifics of the evening after that.
While King apparently remarked afterward that he was shocked by the extent of the anger and hostility directed toward him during his speech, his outward calm in the midst of that rancor was the most memorable and striking part of the evening for me.
Just three weeks later, King was assassinated in Memphis, and I'll never forget the look of anguish and sorrow on my mother's face when the awful news arrived. It was all the more wrenching for us having seen him in person so recently.
Later in the spring I visited a girl who I was fairly smitten with, and we were sitting in the den of her large home, mindlessly chatting like average teenagers. I mentioned King and how awful I thought it was that he had been murdered, naively assuming that she agreed.
To my appalled shock, she declared that she was glad King was dead because according to her father, King was a Communist traitor. I immediately became acutely conscious of a yawning gulf between us that I had no interest in bridging, and I left a few minutes later. What struck me then, and still does, is that she was smiling when she said she was glad King had been murdered.
Racism is a universal human failing and doesn't go away by itself. The national events of the last decade make it easy to feel as though the racial progress the country has made since King's assassination has largely evaporated.
I don't believe that's an accurate reflection of reality. When I think of what American life was like in 1968 and what it's like now, the differences with respect to race are significant, and in a variety of ways represent authentic positive change. Looking at the big picture in 2021, it might not be a big deal that Will Johnson played for the Blue Devils, but it's one small sign of how things have changed in my life, and I think for the better.
Here are some articles about King's visit and speech in Grosse Pointe:
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/remembering-day-martin-luther-king-jr-came-grosse-pointe
March 14th, 2021 at 10:35 PM ^
Cool story, bro (for real).
You could (as you probably know, and to a different degree) add Greeks and Italians to the list you made.
March 14th, 2021 at 11:26 PM ^
For a number of years in the 1950s and '60s, Grosse Pointe, predominantly the Park, was home to several prominent members of the local Detroit Mafia, and I had some of their kids in my neighborhood and in my classes. One of them was later rumored to be tangentially involved in the Hoffa disappearance, although I suspect that was a tall tale.
I think it was in the late1970s/1980s that the reputed Mafia families began moving out of GP because their presence had been a topic of articles in national magazines, and they really didn't like the spotlight and publicity. From what I recall, most were moving to the northeastern portions of Macomb County.
I once had a brush with one of those families which must have moved from the Pointes.
Many years ago I was having a drink with a pretty young lady in a northern suburb. (I won't say the name of the place or even the town, because I'm not an idiot.) She suggested this club where she knew the owner, and we could get into the VIP room. Sounded great, so we did.
And the room was very VIP: dark paneling and leather couches and some of the best scotch I've ever had. And the staff treated her vaguely like royalty, which I thought nothing of. I knew she came from money, so I figured it was just a reflection of her family's wealth.
Well, it was, but not just her wealth. Also in the room were three guys in their 20s / 30s, who looked like extras in a Scorsese movie. They sat at a corner table, getting drunker than hell. And the more they drank, the louder they talked, until it was hard to hear our own conversation.
I didn't know what they were saying, only that they were annoying. So I suggested we move further away. She said that wouldn't be necessary, and suddenly stood up, faced their direction, and said "EXCUSE ME!" in a voice that cut through the room. I thought "Oh shit!" at the sight of her challenging these muscular idiots, since 3:1 was a ratio that would get my ass kicked.
Except the only asses kicked were theirs. Because they sat there silently as she told them, "I have a guest with me, so would you quiet down, please?" They obviously recognized her, and the edge in her voice, and the emphasis on the word "guest," made these three as silent as chastened schoolboys. They soon finished their drinks and left.
I was stunned, and asked "What the hell was that?" She was in the middle of lighting a cigar for me (one of the more erotic gestures that I'd never seen before). She smiled, and waved it off with a casual comment that the three were talking about something that shouldn't be talked about - especially not when there was a "guest" in the room.
Again, that emphasis. And all of a sudden, I got the uncomfortable feeling that I was in deep water and sharks had been sighted. I politely declined a second drink, we left shortly after, and I didn't see her again. I found out later that her family was "connected," and that was enough to make me run like a chickenshit. No matter how great her legs were, I had no interest in maintaining that "connection."
March 15th, 2021 at 12:51 PM ^
That's a story that I can easily envision in a movie.
When I was a senior I went on one date with a girl who was a year younger than me. She was gorgeous—and so was completely out of my league—and when I picked her up at her house her dad and her older brother were there to give me the once over.
Her dad was a green grocer, an occupation that figured very prominently in the history of Italians in the Detroit area, including those said to be "connected." On top of that, her brother was a Marine home on leave from service in Viet Nam, and to say I could tell that both her father and her brother took an instant dislike to me and my longish blond hair is an understatement. Wearing my letter jacket didn't fool them for a second.
The date went fine, but you can be damn sure I was a complete gentleman during the evening and got her home on time. I didn't ask her out again.
They didn't all move away. Growing up in GP in the 90s, I lived next door to a family with a certain infamous name. We were (and are) fairly sure that that branch wasn't involved in the family business, though. At least not directly. Another of the family was a Little League coach (and the unfortunate kind who would berate 10-year-olds at the top of his obnoxious lungs.)
I was thinking the same thing. If it's the same family I'm thinking of I graduated with the middle son (they had two sons and a daugther). They were rumored to have the name but not be involved. Every one in the family was always super nice to me and I never had a problem with any of them. Last I knew they moved from where they lived when I was growing up (I lived around the corner on Barrington) but not sure if they left GP.
When I graduated there was a decently sized Greek population as well (also always super nice), but I don't know much about any mafia there, with the exception of the bouzouki lounge being not quite what it seemed.
Our neighbors might have been cousins to yours? I think there was just one son and one daughter - though my memory is fuzzy on that and there could've been more. They built a house on Whittier when I was in like second or third grade and I never had a clue their name meant anything at all until a few years later when the news of all the arrests hit the papers. Of course I asked my parents about this (the daughter was in my grade and we're still friendly) and of course they told me to keep my dopey trap shut at all times - though they framed it in terms of "you don't ask anyone about their family issues." Frankly they were indistinguishable from any other perfectly nice neighbors that anyone might have, and their name might as well have been Smith. They don't live in that same house, they moved a few years ago, but did stay in the Park; my folks still see them out and about and exchange pleasantries.
March 14th, 2021 at 10:40 PM ^
It's amazing to me how much the current political atmosphere in the US seems to mirror the late 60's. I was born in '77 so IDK. I asked this of my brother in law (who is about your age and of similar sensibilities although as I recall he was a bit of the blacksheep of his family re: politics):is this (meaning 2020 politics) what the 60's were like?
He said, 'sort of' but the big difference then was it was the youth vs adult generations. Now, it's urban vs rural to a greater extent than young vs old. Would be interesting to hear other opinions on the 60s compared to now.
March 14th, 2021 at 11:42 PM ^
I think your brother-in-law's characterization has some truth in it. What drove a huge amount of the protest movements in the '60s—both for black civil rights activists and white college activists—was Vietnam.
People today have no concept of the horrific daily casualty figures that filled every hour of TV and every issue of the daily newspapers and weekly magazines. By comparison, the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan have been a walk in the park, at least in terms of sheer numbers.
Over 47,000 American soldiers died in combat in Vietnam; approximately 3,800 and 1,800 US troops died in Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively.
The Vietnam situation was exacerbated by the fact that the large majority of those fighting were conscripts; the military draft was at the top of the minds of most young men who were graduating from high school.
Add to that the fact that it wasn't a traditional war like WWII had been, but a grinding guerrilla insurgency that refused to confront the American forces in set-piece battles in open terrain, preferring instead ambush attacks in heavy jungle cover or in small villages. It sucked.
The racial dimension of Viet Nam was that a common avenue of avoiding or postponing the draft was via college deferments, and because of structural racial/social reasons, that option wasn't available to the vast majority of young black men, so they were cannon fodder. That's what Muhammad Ali took issue with, in part.
I'd disagree that Vietnam was the impetus of protests for Black people. I could see media portrayal of that idea, but there was sickening and vicious murders of Black people happening on the regular all over the US, white mob violence towards Black people trying to work and buy homes, and structural restrictions against Black people.
March 15th, 2021 at 11:40 AM ^
But I think what Don is saying is that the Vietnam War is what got a lot of Americans into activism in the first place, and then from that point people started challenging other aspects of society, including segregation.
March 15th, 2021 at 12:33 PM ^
I didn't do a good job of expressing myself there—you're right that Black activism and protests during the '60s focused generally on issues of discrimination and what's now called structural racism in the U.S.
However, it is the case that the war in Vietnam was a significant source of anger among many Black Americans, because to them it represented a continuation of the problems they faced at home; King's speech in Grosse Pointe directly discussed his views on the connections between the war and racial injustices in the U.S., which is why he was opposed to the war.
"As the fighting dragged on, ugly statistics revealed how African Americans were being disproportionately affected by the war. Robert McNamara’s Project 100,000, implemented in 1966, pulled hundreds of thousands of poor men into the war—40% of them African American. By the following year, Black soldiers made up 16.3% of those drafted and 23% of Vietnam combat troops, despite accounting for only roughly 11% of the civilian population."
https://time.com/5852476/da-5-bloods-black-vietnam-veterans/
March 17th, 2021 at 12:24 PM ^
Nothing to add here other than that I love the thinking in this entire post. Being an African-American is an unnerving prospect right now. Reading all this gives me faith in people, which been an issue for me lately.
You hit on a key point that I think was a major cause of the protests: TV. Like you said, every evening, the Vietnam War was in American living rooms, largely unfiltered by the government. Compared to WW2, where Americans saw the progress of the war in newsreels full of heroics produced by the war department, the evening news was raw. America, in general, saw war that was not glorified, Americans killed and wounded, and without the American flag waving trimuphantly from a conquered mountaintop.
The Korean War gets forgotten, but more Americans died in three years of the Korean War than 10 years of the Vietnam War, but it took 50 years to even get recognized with a memorial in Washington.
March 14th, 2021 at 11:28 PM ^
A powerful experience.
I'm not sure which feels more surprising still, that King was so young when he was killed or that he made such a major difference in American life for someone so young.
March 15th, 2021 at 12:43 AM ^
Thank you very much for posting this. I hope you consider sharing this elsewhere; I'm sure there are oral history projects that would be very interested in your experience.
Your conclusion, that racism isn't as bad today as it was in 68 is certainly correct. But, speaking for only myself, a millennial white guy from the suburbs of GR, my fallacy was assuming linear progress. My thought process when I was younger was "racism isn't as bad in 2006 as it was in 1966. The rate of change must have continued (and will continue) at a more or less constant rate". This is obviously false.
So that's great that Will played for your alma mater and that Dr. King is celebrated today but it wasn't that long ago that one of the Grosse Pointes put a bunch of sheds in the road to keep Black Detroiters out. We have a long way to go.
Again, thanks for this write up. Really liked reading this
March 15th, 2021 at 12:39 PM ^
You hit the nail squarely about the non-linearity of progress—the sad history of the end of Reconstruction and the following period the white southerners called "Redemption" should have been proof of that.
The candidacy and election of the nation's first Black President brought the racists out of the woodshed, so to speak; the open, uninhibited expression of overtly racist commentary on social media that surged with the 2008 election would have been unthinkable just a decade earlier.
I think often of the missed opportunity of our first black President. I did not vote for him, but I remember this being the one time in my life where there were no bad choices.
Dr. King's vision come to life, only 40 years after his death. I believe he would have been amazed and delighted.
And ultimately disappointed.
my fallacy was assuming linear progress.
Reaching back into my undergrad, which I don't remember well, but I believe it was Hagel who posited that progress was like a corkscrew or helix. As in there was some retrograde motion to the whole system. Progress would generally move in a forward direction, but not without some backsliding or perceived negative motion. Can't remember the general consensus on his overall philosophy, but I found that bit to be pretty on point.
Thanks for posting, that was powerful. We still have a long way to go, but we have definitely made strides towards all of us coming together as human beings. God willing, we'll beat those swords into plowshares yet.
Enlightening. Uplifting. Humbling. Thank you for sharing this experience with us.
It struck me when I learned of how young MLK was when he was murdered. Both in the sense of how much he had accomplished by an early age, but also in how much we lost due to white supremacy. He gave his I Have a Dream Speech in Detroit prior to the march in DC.
Thank you, Don. What an experience. Very glad you shared.
March 15th, 2021 at 10:45 AM ^
Thanks Don for the good historical piece on MLK. The Lorraine Hotel/ Museum in Memphis is a very moving experience that I'd recommend to anyone. It just feels like too often white male America "decides" if things are getting better for women, people of color, LGBT, et. al. I think it makes us feel better.
I grew up near the University District in Detroit during the riots and then moved to insulated Grosse Pointe. To say it was a culture shock was an understatement. Going to UM and being exposed to diversity, very different points of view, and not returning to "pre Will Johnson GP" to live was a blessing.
March 15th, 2021 at 11:19 AM ^
Eloquent and powerful. Thanks for sharing.
March 15th, 2021 at 11:23 AM ^
My parents had a number of tickets and at the last minute one was freed-up. I was asked to attend but declined as I had something else going on that evening (senior year of high school, although not at GPS).
One of the biggest mistakes of my life.
March 15th, 2021 at 12:05 PM ^
Happy to have seen this in the diary section and clicked the link out of curiosity! Awesome story Don!
Thanks for the history and personal perspective, Don. Not only the OP, but I found the whole thread worth my while. Much appreciated.
Thanks for posting this. My wife grew up in Grosse Pointe as well, and went to South. From what she describes the makeup of the student population in the 80s wasn't much more diverse than what you described in the late 1960s.
My wife was too young to attend the speech in 1968, but her older cousin went to see King with his father. Her cousin described the crowd essentially as you did -- the majority supportive of King with angry protestors mixed in.
My other connection is that our neighbor (probably just a few years older than you) worked on the GP South school paper, The Tower. She still has the front page article about King's speech.
Great write up, thanks for sharing. Some authors of have mastered the art of communicating how larger societal issues and events get filtered into the minds of kids.
It makes me think about how I have few memories of national news as an elementary school kid (aside from the world champ Tigers haha) but Vincent Chin filtered into my awareness (I'm asian), even though I'm sure I barely understood it...
This may be the best thing I’ve read on this blog. Thank you for sharing this so eloquently.
Although I respect different opinions and backgrounds, it’s time for all humans to love each other. Have you ever been in a group or on a team where cooperation and teamwork held them back? It doesn’t happen. Those characteristics make you better, stronger, more successful. We need to do a better job of that as human beings. Life is short, and we should make it as positive experience for all of us as we can.
March 28th, 2021 at 11:30 AM ^
Nice piece Don; one thing, the first graduation class at GPN was 1970, my brother was part of it. Did “South” not get named “South” till the next year? He went to South for one year, then for 11th & 12th to North.
April 16th, 2021 at 11:45 AM ^
After checking, I see that I was incorrect about the history of South and North.
Grosse Pointe North's first year of operation began in fall 1968, which was also GP South's first year under that name.
So when MLK spoke at the high school in early '68, it was still officially just Grosse Pointe High School.
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