Orsel McGhee House

In 1944 the Orsel McGhees, a black family, moved here into what was then an all-white neighborhood. A neighboring family won a court order revoking the McGhees’ purchase of the house on the basis of a restrictive covenant forbidding non-white residents. The McGhees, aided by the NAACP and represented by Thurgood Marshall, appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court’s 1948 decision in favor of the McGhees upheld the principle of freedom from discrimination in the enjoyment of property rights.

Plaque via Michigan History Center