Tales from the Reuther Library

A “Most Conscientious and Considerate Method”: Grosse Pointe’s Gross Post-War Housing Point System


Listen Later

Emma Maniere describes how homeowners associations in Grosse Pointe, an affluent suburb bordering Detroit, developed a point system following the Second World War to rank and exclude prospective homebuyers to maintain the community’s Anglo Christian whiteness and affluence. The point system, which ranked nativity and ethnicity, accent, skin tone, and occupation, among other measures, was dismantled in 1960 but left a pernicious legacy that continues to reverberate in the community today. Maniere is a doctoral candidate in the history program at New York University.

Related Collections:


ACLU of Michigan and Metropolitan Detroit Branch Records
Kathy Groehn Cosseboom El-Messidi Papers
Grosse Pointe Civil Rights Organizations Records

JCA: Jewish Community Council Records

Related Resources:

A “Most Conscientious and Considerate Method”: Residential Segregation and Integrationist Activism in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, 1960-1970

Episode Credits

Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Interviewee: Emma Maniere
Music: Bart Bealmear

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Tales from the Reuther LibraryBy Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

21 ratings


More shows like Tales from the Reuther Library

View all
Sound Opinions by Sound Opinions

Sound Opinions

1,970 Listeners

Up First from NPR by NPR

Up First from NPR

56,176 Listeners

American Prestige by Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison

American Prestige

709 Listeners