The Containment

Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North

De: Michelle Adams

Narrado por: Janina Edwards

The epic story of Detroit's struggle to integrate schools in its suburbs—and the defeat of desegregation in the North.

In 1974, the Supreme Court issued a momentous decision: In the case of Milliken v. Bradley, the justices brought a halt to school desegregation across the North, and to the civil rights movement’s struggle for a truly equal education for all. How did this come about, and why?

In The Containment, the esteemed legal scholar Michelle Adams tells the epic story of the struggle to integrate Detroit schools—and what happened when it collided with Nixon-appointed justices committed to a judicial counterrevolution. Adams chronicles the devoted activists who tried to uplift Detroit's students amid the upheavals of riots, Black power, and white flight—and how their efforts led to federal judge Stephen Roth’s landmark order to achieve racial balance by tearing down the walls separating the city and its suburbs. The “metropolitan remedy” could have remade the landscape of racial justice. Instead, the Supreme Court ruled that the suburbs could not be a part of the effort to integrate—and thus upheld the inequalities that remain in place today.

Adams tells this story via compelling portraits of a city under stress and of key figures—including Detroit’s first Black mayor, Coleman Young, and Justices Marshall, Rehnquist, and Powell. The result is a legal and historical drama that exposes the roots of today’s backlash against affirmative action and other efforts to fulfill the country's promise.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2025 Michelle Adams (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Michelle Adams has written a truly beautiful, intimate, and powerful history of ordinary Detroiters’ determined fight to finally ensure equality of opportunity for Black children. As she makes painfully clear, the educational and residential segregation that came to devastate the country thereafter was not at all inevitable. It was an active choice and a legal betrayal on the part of too many Americans who were on the wrong side of history but whose short-sightedness might yet be undone.”—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

“It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when the federal courts were committed to the pursuit of racial justice. In her mesmerizing new book, Michelle Adams re-creates the landmark case that shattered that commitment. The Containment is a history you have to read to understand the nation we’ve become.”—Kevin Boyle, National Book Award-winning author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age

"Michelle Adams has written the definitive history of Milliken v. Bradley, one of the most important Supreme Court cases of all time. Deeply researched and beautifully written, The Containment fundamentally changes how we understand the history of civil rights. This page-turner illuminates how battles over school desegregation shaped cities and suburbs, and explains why issues like affirmative action remain political battlegrounds today."—Matthew F. Delmont, Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth and author of Half American: The Heroic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad

Revealing an important part of US History

This book should be a must-read, even in high school in the US - maybe part of AP US History. Much of our history is swept under the rug so that we can cling to a mythical ideal of our country. Without an understanding of what really has happened we cannot possibly work to improve our country which I so love.

Critical history of what should have been.

It's very good.

The focus is on the pivotal Milliken v. Bradley, the famous metro-wide school desegregation case/plan. Knew lots of the history, but not at this level of detail. And it has reminded me of how, at least with the post-Warren court, SCOTUS has been a force that has often supported systemic racism. Judge Roth tried to push back in Detroit, but SCOTUS undid his attempt.

I also appreciate how the author draws on her Detroit roots. She grew up in a neighborhood about a mile from the one I did, about the same time (60s/70s).

Very informative

Very informative and much needed. It did go a little too much into the legal side and repetitive on some details but overall a great story.