“Located three miles west of the City of Toledo in western Lucas County, land in Spencer Township consists of farmland, protected natural areas, single and multiple family residences, an industrial park and some scattered neighborhood commercial areas…The most active area in the Township was the intersection of Angola and Irwin Roads. There was a grocery store and gas station on the southwest corner owned by Henry and Mabel Wallace…” – from 1999 Spencer Township Plan Use Plan – Introduction
“Frank ‘Sonny’ Hines was born in Kentucky in 1903, and he moved to Toledo from Kentucky. His wife, Sarah, was born in 1911 in Memphis and the two of them moved out of Toledo to the farm in 1937. The Swanton and Spencer Sharples Township area was a magnet for African-Americans looking to move out of the city and Realtor Lawrence Hallet had purchased a large chunk of land in the area along State Rts. 2 and 295. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was willing to sell land to blacks. ‘Juke joints’ started popping up in the area, which also was known as ‘Moonshine Valley’ because of the large number of bootleggers – both black and white – who lived in the area. Frank and Sarah became popular for the house parties they’d hold in their basement, featuring live music, a jukebox, and plenty of good times….” – found at The Only Color Was The Blues, The Early Years.
How school district boundaries are gerrymandered to keep poor kids segregate
Arguably the most egregious example — or at least the worst that EdBuild found comes from Ohio, where the Toledo School District is split in half:
This dates from the late 1950s, when a plan to merge school districts went wrong because one district had more black and low-income students. The wealthier district voted to reject them:
Spencer students were left in a smaller, poorer Spencer-Sharples school district. By 1968, the district was under-enrolled and underfunded, with no neighboring school district willing to join with it. At the request of the Ohio state government, Toledo Public Schools, which lay on the other side of Springfield, agreed to annex Spencer-Sharples. But by 1980, district leadership decided it had become too costly and difficult to operate schools located in Spencer, isolated as they were from the rest of Toledo’s school system. Over the strong objections of many in the affected community, Toledo closed all schools formerly located in Spencer-Sharples and began to bus students through Springfield into western Toledo.
The children in the former Spencer-Sharples district are now part of Toledo’s school district, which has a 38 percent poverty rate. They all have to take a bus all the way through a district with 21 percent poverty, and much closer schools, just to get an education. – found at https://www.vox.com/2015/7/24/9031729/school-districts-poverty
