Fannie Richards Homesite

Fannie Richards, Detroit’s first black public school teacher, lived on this site. Born in Virginia about 1840, she moved to Detroit as a young woman. In 1863 she opened a private school for black children, and two years later was appointed to teach in the city’s colored schools. In 1869 she helped sponsor a lawsuit against Detroit’s racially segregated school system, and in a landmark decision, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered the schools integrated. An innovative teacher, Fannie Richards was transferred to the Everett Elementary School in 1871 where she taught the city’s first kindergarten class. She retired from Everett in 1915, completing fifty years of service in Detroit schools. Fannie Richards died in 1922.