Carver Elementary School

During the early twentieth century, many African Americans migrated north to work in Detroit’s automobile factories. Increased migration during World War II prompted Royal Oak Township’s Clinton School District to split into two racially segregated districts. The new Carver School District and the George Washington Carver Elementary School, built in 1945, served black students. By 1960 the Carver district suffered a drop in tax revenue and could not support a high school. Because neighboring districts would not accept Carver’s students, Governor G. Mennen Williams merged the Carver and Oak Park districts. The Carver school closed in 1982. Although much altered, the building is a reminder of “separate but equal” government policies that institutionalized segregation.