Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Betty Shabazz, Bill Buntin, Derrick Coleman, and many others once roamed the hallways of Detroit Northern High School in the city’s North End neighborhood. The historic school is a mere image of what it used to be and is no longer open. In fact, the 102-year-old building near Woodward Avenue and Clairmount is an all-girls now. But over 50 years ago, it was the scene of a student walkout that would have made national headlines today.
On April 7, 1966, 2000 students, led by Judy Walker, Charles Colding, and Michael Batchelor, executed a three-week walkout that called for educational equality and the firing of white principal Art Carty, who was stuck in his old-school educational ways, and black police officer Barney Lucas, known for his police brutality around the school. The revolt was supported by many of the engaged and active educators working within the system and together they formed a “Freedom School” in an effort to gain access to a better education and improve conditions for future generations of Detroit students.
Set in the prelude to Detroit’s infamous riot in the summer of 1967, “Northern Lights 1966” is an acclaimed playwright by Cass Tech graduate Michael Dinwiddie and presented by the Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit. It is the powerful true story of the students at Northern High who joined forces to demand educational equality and won.
“One of our goals here is to tell the real-life story of young people in Detroit,” said Rick Sperling, founder of the Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit and director of the play. “I came upon this story talking to retired professor Dr. Karl Gregory, who’s still a very active member in the community. I was going to a conference with him and I asked him if he knew of any stories about Detroit’s young people and he told me the whole story of the Northern walkout and Freedom School. It was the most amazing story I had ever heard and from there, I knew that we wanted to do this story.”
The story being told to Sperling was so compelling because the man telling it to him was the volunteer principal of the Freedom School that was started by students participating in the Northern walkout. Dr. Gregory, an alum of Northern, was a professor at Wayne State University and activist in Detroit in 1966. He, Northern teachers, area college professors, black lawyers, and others taught students at the Freedom School operated out of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, at the invitation of Reverend David M. Gracie. The school proved that students desired education over protesting and helped fuel their walkout.
“My supporting of the students was important because they were being abused by the Detroit school system, as were many students in the predominantly black central city schools at the time,” said Dr. Gregory during an interview with the Detroit Historical Society in 2015. “The active seeking by students of a hope for higher quality education could be, I thought, the cutting edge for reinvigorated better performance in a new non-racialized school system.”
Much like the student-led protest at Northern High in 1966, the Northern Lights 1966 play will be led high school actors in the Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit program and will feature music from the Motown era during that time. The issues in Detroit Public Schools and the forming of student-led activist groups in 1966 are a spitting image of what is happening in 2018, with students fighting for better gun control and adequate teachers in their schools. The play exemplifies the power of the youth when they make their voices heard.
“I auditioned for this play because I thought it to be a very interesting topic that still applies to today,” said Shanice Davis, a junior at Cass Tech High and actress in the play. “Back then, they had a protest about what was happening in their school and the adults were not hearing them. And now we recently had a walkout at Cass Tech about the gun violence and we felt as if people weren’t hearing our voice. When people come to see this play, they’ll know not to ignore the voices of the young people because we are very informed, and we will fight for what’s right.”
The play will show at the Detroit Film Theatre within the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., with student matinees on May 11 and 18 at 10 a.m. The public will be able to see the play May 12 and 19 at 7 p.m., and May 13 and 20 at 4 p.m. Children under five years old will not be admitted.
To purchase tickets, order online at www.mosaicdetroit.com. For information about student matinees and special group rates for public performances, call 313-872-6910 ext. 4024.
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