Birwood Wall Historic Marker visited by Thomasville Native.

Jacquelyn Sneed Visit Birwood WallTruflix Network

Thomasville native Jacquelyn Sneed visits Birwood Wall in Detroit Michigan while filming the upcoming documentary Thomasville On Trial, which shares her brother's life, Curtis Thomas Sr., a civil rights activist in South Georgia during the Jim Crow era. Curtis Thomas led the NAACP chapter in Thomasville and was a part of the committee that facilitated the integration of schools in the city close to 50 years ago. He also led a civil rights march in Thomasville during the 60s to honor Martin Luther King Junior.

Other activists who worked alongside Thomas within the movement were Rev. Dr. I.L. Mullins, Bill Morris, Elijah Hill, and Rudolph Elzy.

Curtis Thomas with Dick GregoryJack Hadley Black History Museum

Sneed says " It was important for me to visit this historic landmark because I never knew this place existed. It gave me the chills to know that even this far north the communities were separated by a 6ft wall. It reminds me of the hard work, my brother Curtis, and others put in to achieve equal rights and justice in the south."

Not only did her brother Curtis Thomas fight for equality, Jacquelyn Sneed also has a long history of advocating for families in Wayne County. She is known to some as Jackie, and to her family as Jac, who graduated with honors from the historic Frederick Douglass High School in Thomasville, GA, in 1964. She studied at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia, then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology in 1969 from Knoxville College in Tennessee.

Jacquelyn Sneed served over 30+ years in Wayne County Michigan as a family advocate in the areas of Adult Services, Foster Care, and Adoption, She served as a Social Service Supervisor, as well as Resource Program Analyst in Wayne County Central Administration within the Risk Management Division, Evaluations, Analysis and Legal Support Unit. Since her beginning in 1969 till now she will always be considered a grand resource for Wayne County.

The Birwood Wall History

The wall begins across the street from the northern boundary of Van Antwerp Park, on Pembroke Avenue between Birwood and Mendota streets. It extends north until just south of 8 Mile Road. Historically it was referred to as Black Bottom just as in Thomasville GA there was a portion of the downtown district termed Sandy Bottom.

Due to redlining, the Eight Mile area was extremely poor and was considered a "blighted area". After World War II, a developer saw the area as a new spot to construct an all-white subdivision. HOLC appraisers viewed this as high-risk because of how close it was to the neighborhood occupied by black people. FHA, as a result, was unable and unwilling to lend out loans for home construction. Sugrue reports, "the developer worked out a compromise with the FHA, garnering loans and mortgage guarantees in exchange for the construction of a foot-thick, six-foot-high wall, running for a half-mile on the property line separating the black and white neighborhoods."

Blackstone AdBridge Detroit

Contractors and realtors were able to attract whites to this area because the wall would "protect them". It served to keep property values high and to keep the neighborhoods racially segregated. It became known as the Detroit Eight Mile Wall, the "Detroit Wailing Wall", and the Birwood Wall.

Birwood WallTruflix Network

Teresa Moon, a long-time resident of the area, was the one who first told me about the history of the Birwood Wall. She's lived here for more than 60 years and has seen the wall firsthand. Moon and her family moved into the neighborhood in 1959. She said that growing up, she was "subjected to seeing this wall every day", but didn't learn about the truth of the wall until much later in life.
Today, Moon is driven to make sure that the love, commitment, and strength that was passed down from the people who kept this community together never dies. She helps maintain a park surrounding the wall and serves as an unofficial historian for the neighborhood.

Theresa Moon Planting Garden in Alfonso Wells Memorial PlaygroundTruflix Network

“It’s been 81 years since (the wall) was erected; there are new barriers,” Moon said. There are new red lines. There are new injustices. There are people underserved. A lot of those people live in my community and that’s what I represent. We say ‘Eight Mile for life.’ It means a lot to us to have grown up in an area that has just recently been designated as a historical area.”
In 2021, the wall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as part of the Civil Rights Movement and the African American Experience in 20th Century Detroit

Birwood Wall Receives Historic Marker by the City of Detroit Michigan.

Birwood Wall Historic MarkerBridge Detroit

That wall received a historical marker on Monday in a dedication ceremony that featured Mayor Mike Duggan, the city’s director of arts and culture Rochelle Riley, and the city of Detroit’s historian Jamon Jordan.

Mayor Duggan's thoughts on keeping Detroit's historically accurate are captivating and well-timed given the recent debates around legislation that would forbid teaching Critical Race Theory in schools. Even though educators in Detroit have mostly opposed these anti-CRT bills, parents and educators in other mostly white districts are still in favor of banning discussions of race.
It is difficult to comprehend why so many individuals would still desire to ban the teachings that would systemically elucidate why Detroit might be dissimilar from Southfield or Bloomfield Hills. The resolution to that quandary can be observed in the dedication of Birwood Wall.

Keith Williams, chair of the Michigan Democratic Black Caucus, said that recognition is only a fraction of the mission. Williams is an emphatic supporter of a city task force being assembled to explore how Detroit could provide reparations for Black residents who have been affected by historic injustices.
"Markers are a good way to show what has happened," Williams said. "it would be great if they also compensated the people who were negatively impacted by the wall. We need to start talking about other types of walls- the ones that create poverty and wealth gaps. How do we take all of this and rebuild it in a way that is fair? The city won't make any more progress until they listen to the pain caused by racism."