Judge Damon Keith Orders Black Homes Rebuilt In 33-Year-Old Civil Rights Suit

Jet, July 30, 2001

More than three decades after 50 homes in a Black neighborhood in Hamtramck, MI, were illegally torn down, a federal judge ordered the homes rebuilt.

In settling a 33-year-old civil rights suit, Judge Damon Keith ruled that 70 homes be built in the mostly Black Grand-Haven-Dyar neighborhood. The senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit signed several orders for work to begin in the 2.1 square-mile city.

The long delay between the controversial "urban renewal" project and the judge's order frustrated some and outlasted others. Amanda Dumas, the first Black person who agreed to sue in the 1968 case, died in March.

Charlene Sloan, a member of the Grand Haven-Dyar-Dequindre Corp., which represents Black residents, watched Keith sign the orders in Detroit. "I don't know if I can call it justice," she said. "This is something that should have been done years ago."

In 1966, Hamtramck's City Council decided to build a civic center in the Black neighborhood, and the homes of 50 Black families were demolished. No relocation assistance was offered to the displaced families and the civic center was never built.