Soup and substance speech to focus on segregation in Detroit

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Political science professor Joyce Baugh hopes to bring civil rights issues home to students during a Soup and Substance event Jan. 20.

In her speech, “The Color Line in Metropolitan Detroit: Segregated Housing and Segregated Schools,” she will talk about racial segregation and how it has affected Detroit.

“I want students to have a better understanding of their communities and the important policies that continue to influence the way we live now,” she said.

Soup and Substance will take place from noon to 1 p.m. in the Bovee University Center terrace rooms. The event is free and open to the public.

Baugh said she will talk about factors that contributed to the segregation of housing and schools in the 1970s.

“Government policies and decisions at the federal, state and local levels helped to perpetuate racial segregation in Detroit,” Baugh said.

Real estate and banking decisions also influenced housing policies, she said.

Ulana Klymyshyn, director of multicultural programs, said the Soup and Substance program always features a speaker on the topic of diversity and the upcoming event will correspond with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week.

Klymyshyn said she hopes people will attend the event because the topic is relevant to many students at CMU. She said at least one third of the student population comes from Southeast Michigan.

“The Civil Rights Movement was about giving civil rights to everybody, and segregation was a way to make sure not everyone got the same rights,” she said. “We still have a lot of segregation in that area.”

Klymyshyn said she believes people who attend Soup and Substance will develop a better understanding of the importance of civil rights.

“I want people to take away a renewed appreciation of making sure all of us have the civil rights that are due to us,” she said.