24th Annual Midwest Clinical Law Teachers Conference Wayne State University Law School

I was born…

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I grew up…

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My parents were sharecroppers in the South.

They left the South in search of opportunity.

They moved north seeking opportunity and bought a house.

Today I would say they bought into a low opportunity neighborhood.

They moved north seeking opportunity and bought a house.

Today I would say they bought into a low opportunity neighborhood.

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The vacant grassy plots are not parks.

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Vacant lots and abandoned houses

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I grew up in a low opportunity structure in a declining opportunity city.

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Low Opportunity High Opportunity

Less than 25% of students in Detroit finish high school

More the 60% of the men will spend time in jail

There may soon be no bus service in some areas

It is difficult to attract jobs or private capital

Not safe; very few parks

Difficult to get fresh food

The year my step daughter finished high school, 100% of the students graduated and 100% went to college

Most will not even drive by a jail

Free bus service

Relatively easy to attract capital

Very safe; great parks

Easy to get fresh food

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Which community would you choose?

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14Photo source: (Madoff) AP

An interlocking set of laws, government policies, and court decisions have „set the stage‟ for the disparities we see today

FHA policies upholding segregation

Redlining, discouraging mixed race neighborhoods

Blockbusting, racially restrictive covenants and other forms of discrimination in the housing industry

Urban renewal, highway construction and public housing policy

Suburban sprawl and white flight

“If a neighborhood is to retain stability, it is necessary that properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial classes. A change in social or racial occupancy generally contributes to instability and a decline in values.”

–Excerpt from the 1947 FHA underwriting manual

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From Redlining to Reverse Redlining

In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court announced that segregation on the basis of race was unconstitutional, and that „separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.‟ 347 U.S. 495 (1954).

By the mid-1970s, the Court began to slowly withdraw its support for school desegregation.

In Miliken v. Bradley (1974), the Court ruled that lower courts could not order an „inter-district‟ remedy that encompassed suburban districts without first showing that the suburban district was liable.

The effect of the decision was to sanction white flight and jurisdictional fragmentation to escape the Brown mandate.

Between 1950 and 1990, the number of municipalities in major metropolitan areas grew from 193 to 9,600. During the 1990s alone, the suburban population grew 17.7% compared to 9% for cities.

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Urban Renewal decimated entire neighborhoods, displacing city

residents from their communities and re-housing

them in high-rise, public housing projects

26http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/sugrue.html

Detroit‟s “Wailing Wall” being constructed

Federal subsidies bankrolled Whites‟

departure to the suburbs, while neglecting

public transit in the cities, creating racially

and economically inequitable regions

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10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

1956

1958

1960

1962

1964

1966

1968

1970

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

$ in millions

Transit Highway

Source: U.S. Congressional Budget Office, Trends in Public Spending on Transportation and Water Infrastructure, 1956 to 2004, August 2007. Data obtained from supplementary tables downloaded from www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/85xx/doc8517/ SupplementalTables.xls, 17 December 2007.

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Central City

Suburbs

Suburbs

Suburbs

Suburbs

Over 1/3 of the region‟s population lives in an area of low opportunity

1 out of 4 Wayne County households pay more than 30% of their income for housing

Less than 4% of the African Americans in the region live in areas of high opportunity

Nearly 1 million African Americans live in low opportunity areas in the region

More than half of the region‟s Latino population lives in low opportunity areas

High opportunity exclusive to suburban areas of greater Detroit

Limited access to opportunity in inner-city Detroit

90% of regional African Americans live in an area of low-opportunity

De facto segregation and opportunity isolationExclusionary zoning

Subtle forms of housing discrimination

Racial steering, editorializing

Fragmented school districts and court decisions

Economic development policy, infrastructure policy and subsidized housing policy

Continued exurban sprawl and white flight

Reverse redlining

Buy here pay here, rent to own, payday lending, subprime mortgage loans

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Turnover: Systemic legal problems require long-term commitments. Many clinical students only participate for a semester.

Many clinics are general criminal or civil clinics, and are not structured to focus on or address a particular issue or set of issues.

Client relationship promotes piecemeal redress rather than systemic change.

Some clients will be wary of clinical representation.

Practice/Theory: The purpose of a clinic is educational. Clinics are the place where theory meets practice.

Resource Rich: Clinics can draw upon the rich resources of a university environment, including researchers and professors in other departments and colleges for advice and insight.

Experimentalist/Team Oriented: Clinics are a „safe‟ place to explore new ideas, try new approaches in a collaborative environment

Grants can be used to set up specific practice area clinics, which builds expertise and promotes deeper thinking around an issue.

By building a reputation in an area, clinics are more likely to get referrals, inspire client confidence, and make a difference.

Consider setting up a foreclosure clinic to represent foreclosure victims either in mediation or for full representation.

Challenge local exclusionary land use policies: these cases arise in the context of landlord/tenant disputes, residence disputes, particularly in fragmented familial settings (deceased parents, divorce or separation) or immigrant families.

Lawyers Often Underestimate Power of Media: cases are argued in the court of public opinion as well as court of law.

Clinics are well positioned to draw media attention to spotlight issues.◦ School newspapers and school web media can

highlight both the work of the clinic and draw attention to a particular issue

Clinics can develop reputation as a „source‟◦ Give students opportunity to write about issue and

work with community organization and local media

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◦ Living in “concentrated disadvantage” reduces student IQ by 4 points, roughly the equivalent to missing one year of school

Children growing up in very poor families with low social status experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development

In high-poverty communities, children have levels of lead in their blood that are nine times above average. High levels of lead are linked to attention deficit disorder and irreversible loss of cognitive functioning

◦ Sources: Sampson, Robert et. al., “Durable effects of concentrated disadvantage on verbal ability among African-American Children.” PNAS 105(3): 845-852; Cookson, Clive. “Poverty mars formation of infant brains.” Financial Times.com 2/16/2008. (The biggest negative effects were found on language and memory.) ; Richard L. Canfield, Ph.D., et. al., (April 17, 2003). “Intellectual Impairment in Children with Blood Lead Concentrations below 10 µg per Deciliter.” New England Journal of Medicine. Vol. 348, no. 16: 1517-1526. Joel T. Nigg et. al, “Blood Lead Levels Associated with Clinically Diagnosed Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Mediated by Weak Cognitive Control.” Biological Psychiatry Vol. 63, Issue 3: 325-331.

Put your outcome first: what do you want to achieve?

Work backwards from there … how do you achieve it, for everyone?

Understand our linked fates

Talk about race – it is part of the American story

There are still practices, cultural norms and institutional arrangements that help create & maintain (disparate) racialized outcomes◦ We call this “structural racialization”

◦ It is a very different way of looking at race from “Is he a racist?”

◦ The way race matters changes over time (progress/retreat)

◦ We must consider how we each stand differently with respect to our opportunities for work, education, parenting, retirement…

◦ We must understand the work our institutions do, not what we wished they would do

…in order to make them more equitable and fair