Originally Posted by
Chuck La Chez
The city council change to at-large occurred just after African Americans began streaming into Detroit. The Great Migration began in 1910. The council, "coincidentally", switched to at-large in 1918, effectively, eliminating the possibility of segregated African Americans from having a voice on the council without having numerical dominance over the entire city.
Today, the isolated voices are those who do not have the resources to bring their issues to citywide attention but could get a hearing within their respective wards.