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The niece of a renowned Detroit educator and historian is asking the city’s school board to champion a proposal to ensure her aunt’s legacy endures as officials plan to close a school named after her.
The Detroit Public Schools Community District board discussed the Catherine C. Blackwell Institute at its meeting this week. With the school scheduled to close in the near future, Blackwell’s niece Alberta Carter addressed the board about renaming another school after the late Detroit educator, who was a pioneer in the field of African and African-American studies.
“Catherine Blackwell was a remarkable woman whose contributions to education and the community were extensive. Given Catherine’s significant contributions, we respectfully request that following the closure of Blackwell Institute, another school within DPSCD be renamed in her honor,” Carter said.
Under district policy, a request for a school building name change must come from a school board member, the superintendent, a school’s student body, or community stakeholders such as parent or alumni associations. Once the full board signs off on the request, individual schools can begin conducting community meetings and surveys to gauge interest in changing their school’s name and what the new name should be. The board must vote to finalize the new name.
Carter said the school is set to close after the 2025-26 school year, but district spokesperson Chrystal Wilson did not say when the building might close. She told BridgeDetroit that enrollment rates will determine when that will occur. Wilson said the school only has 93 students.
The school is included in DPSCD’s facility master plan, which calls for phasing out low enrollment schools such as Blackwell, Ann Arbor Trail Magnet School, J. E. Clark Preparatory Academy and Greenfield Union Elementary-Middle School over the next several years. While the plan was announced in 2022, the Blackwell Institute had been targeted for closure as early as 2017.
According to a Frequently Asked Questions document for the facility master plan, students at schools that are being phased out should be able to complete elementary or middle school without transferring. If they do need to transfer, students will be able to choose a neighborhood school, including one that is receiving major renovations or new buildings as part of the master plan.
Blackwell has stopped enrolling students in pre-K through the second grade, and, for the 2025-26 school year, families will no longer be able to enroll their children up to the third grade. By the 2029-2030 school year, the enrollment freeze will apply to pre-K through seventh grades. The remaining students would transfer to a nearby school after the 2030-31 school year, the plan says.
At the meeting, board president Corletta Vaughn and board member Angelique Peterson-Mayberry showed support for changing the name of another school to honor Blackwell.
“If a board member needs to own that, I can own that to make sure we can move forward with that,” Peterson-Mayberry said.
Who was Catherine Blackwell?
Blackwell was an internationally recognized authority on African history and culture. She began teaching at Detroit Public Schools in 1955. She also worked for Wayne State University’s Training Institute for Desegregated Education and wrote many papers on K-12 African/African-American studies curriculum.
In 1960, she began traveling to Africa to collect art, musical instruments, and other artifacts, reported the Detroit Free Press. Blackwell eventually started a travel company that specialized in trips to the continent. In her lifetime, she made 61 trips to Africa, visiting 41 countries.
In 1973, Gov. William Milliken appointed her to Michigan’s Civil Rights Commission. She served eight terms and chaired the commission in 1975 and 1981.
In 1992, Detroit Public Schools opened the Catherine C. Blackwell Institute of International Studies, Commerce and Technology, and the following year, Blackwell was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.
Through her travels to Africa, Blackwell built up a sizable African art collection. She donated several pieces to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
In 1994, Blackwell retired from Detroit Public Schools but often visited her namesake school, according to the Free Press.
Blackwell died from heart failure on Feb. 1, 2014. She was 94.
Julia Flagg, a volunteer for historical properties in Michigan and Ohio, talked during the board meeting about Blackwell’s art collection and the significance of having it at the DIA and Wright museum.
“Her name and her legacy and her love of history, heritage and learning should be engraved on a building here in southeast Michigan forever,” she said.
Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.
