Mock Trial

A large part of the work of the Michigan Roundtable deals with acknowledging history for we believe that we cannot move to a new beginning without recognizing history.  To that end, phase one of our work under a grant from the Andrus Family Fund addresses the discriminatory lending practices of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in Detroit starting in the 1930s.

 

Dr. jon powell, director of the Kirwan Institute at The Ohio State University recently published a paper that outlines some of the repercussions and inequity generated by the FHA

• Detroit suffers some of the worst racial segregation in its housing and schools in the nation.
• Detroit has long been identified as a city with one of the worst city-suburb divisions in the nation.
• On average, African Americans in the Detroit region live in neighborhoods with poverty rates nearly quadruple the rates experienced by whites.
• 90% of the African American population was found in low opportunity neighborhoods; in contrast, only 19% of Whites lived in low opportunity communities.  While more that 43% of the regions total population lives in high opportunity neighborhoods, less than 4% of the African  American population lives in high opportunity neighborhoods
• The FHA, established in 1934, was not explicitly a white program, but realtors and hostile white neighbors kept families of color out of white neighborhoods and the FHA condoned redlining practices initiated by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) which precluded loans in predominately black communities.

 

The Roundtable proposes a 3 phase project to help address these inequities: 

• Acknowledgement: A Mock Trial will identify the injustices created by FHA policies.
•  Healing:  Create and staff a regional Truth and Reconciliation type process.
• Action for Change: Create and staff action groups working on the recommendations that come out of the Truth and Reconciliation process.

 

The Roundtable, working with Wayne State’s Law School, will conduct a jury trial in the fall of 2009, including the investigation of facts, preparation of witnesses, trial, deliberations, decision and analysis.  The Michigan Roundtable and the project’s Working Group will recruit and staff an advisory committee consisting of civic and community leaders (e.g. NAACP).  Leading lawyers, judges and legal experts/scholars will also be part of the advisory team.  An effort must be made to draw upon the experience of those in the Detroit area that actually lived through and experienced these discriminatory practices.  Their historical recollection will prove to be an invaluable asset.  Law students and faculty will be assigned all of the roles within the trial and conduct the investigation of facts and preparation of witnesses.  United States District Court Judge Victoria Roberts will preside over the trial and deliberations. 

 

The parties to the litigation will prepare as actual litigants. A jury pool will be selected prior to jury selection.

 

Upon the close of evidence, the judge will instruct the jury on the law and the types of relief the prevailing party is entitled.  Once a verdict is reached, the non-prevailing party will have the opportunity to poll or ask the jurors the reasoning behind their verdict. After the trial is concluded, a discussion amongst the audience and the mock trial participants will take place. 

 

As part of the project the Michigan Roundtable plans to produce a documentary DVD of the trial, deliberations and post trial discussions. The deliberations of the jury will be shown to the audience attending the trial, simultaneously via closed circuit television.  The project will use this DVD to bring this experience to other communities. 

 

The mock trial will specifically identify and acknowledge, through a legal lens, harms inflicted by individuals and institutions specifically related to the FHA policies.  This acknowledged history will lay the groundwork for a truth and reconciliation process, designed to acknowledge the role the larger community played in perpetuating and condoning these harms.  The shared, acknowledged history of the first two phases will lay the groundwork for the action project of the third phase.

 

The Michigan Roundtable and the project Working Group see the Mock Trial as a way to seek acknowledgment, the first step in a transition, of injustices created by FHA policies (Phase 1).  Phase 2, a Truth and Reconciliation process, will be designed to broaden that acknowledgement to include the role the broader community played in condoning, perpetuating or being harmed by the FHA policies and other racial inequities in the Detroit area.  Seeking a new way of being (action plans) after acknowledging this past will be implemented in the third phase – regional action planning.

 

Please visit our web page to view updates to this valuable project.  If you know of any individuals impacted by the FHA’s discriminatory lending practices and who would be willing to contribute their experiences to the project, please contact Freda Sampson at the Michigan Roundtable at (313) 870-1500.

 

 

 

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