Ethnic makeup of Highland Park in the 70's

Reading the thread about Dearborn's Arab population growth brought up this question.

Didn't Highland Park have a growing Arab population in the 70's? I'm going on memory here, but if it's true, why did it stop growing, and where did it go, Dearborn?

And as a second note, my father was Dean of Students at the Detroit Institute Of Technology [[after he left Chrysler) when DIT closed, and he told me one of the reasons for its failure was the widthdrawl of Iranian students after the '79 revolution. Were a lot of these students the base of the Arab influx?

I lived in Highland Parks during those years. I was also a Sears delivery driver and, since I entered homes all over metro Detroit, had a great overview of metro Detroit demographics.

There not that many Arab-Americans or immigrants in Highland Park itself but just to north, centered around John R and 7 mile, there was a rapidly growing population, particularly with immigrants. That area perked up considerably with ethnic businesses opening up, then lost steam and has declined rapidly ever since.

I'm not sure how Iranian students would be the base of an Arab influx as they are not Arabic and speak a completely different language. I do remember there being a lot of Iranian students at Wayne State and other school prior to the Iranian revolution. But they were transient, going to school but then moving on.

I think the presence of a long-established Middle Eastern community centered around Dix and Wyoming, under the stacks of the Rouge Plants, created the basis for all future Detroit area Arabic immigration. Dearborn in the 70's was not the Arab-friendly city it now it is and few Arabs lived outside the isolated Salina area. Seven Mile and John R was probably a lot less expensive and a lot less judgmental.

I believe it was the Chaldeans who made John R and 6 mile their base; whereas, the Salina area had Syrians, Lebonese [[sp), and other arab people. Chaldeans do not consider themselves arab and speak a similar but different language and are Catholic in their religious beliefs.

When Coleman gave the Key to the City to Saddam Hussein it was because of a rather large donation he gave to a local chaldean catholic church.
http://www.timeenoughforlove.org/sav...etroit1980.htm

Don't worry, Elmo the puppet also got a Key to the City as did that great isolationist Charles Lindbergh.

Thank you, Lowell.....

I would think that it would be an interesting study to find out what happened to those students who were over here at the time of the revolution. It is my understanding that many of them came to the U.S. under the sponsorship of the Shah, and would thus be in some jeoparedy had they returned to Iran.

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Originally Posted by gnome

I believe it was the Chaldeans who made John R and 6 mile their base; whereas, the Salina area had Syrians, Lebonese [[sp), and other arab people. Chaldeans do not consider themselves arab and speak a similar but different language and are Catholic in their religious beliefs.

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I'm glad you said that, because they will certainly let you know if you call them Arabs. lol Even quite a few Maronite Lebanese will be quick to make the distinction between them in "the Arabs" if you sound like you're trying to group them with Lebanese Muslims. It's why I get a kick out of people using "Arab" for "Muslim" to describe Dearborn. I bet the Maronites are definitely a minority of the Arab population there, now, but Dearborn is still a majority Christian city when you include the entire population.

It's more than that. There were a few Arab immigrants in Highland Park neighborhoods since 1910 when Henry Ford brought them from the middle east to their plant due the competitive silk and opium trade market from China and European imperialist protectorate control over their lands for crude oil. in the 1970s Highland Park was quite racially divided for its neighborhoods. In the southern part in influx of middle class black families [[mostly from Detroit) come in following the great Jewish exodus from Paradise Valley to the northwest side of Detroit to Oakland County cities.

The northern part of Highland Park was mostly middle class white families [[from Scottish and Finnish descents). They hung on to those homes until the late 1980s and moved awa duey to the continuous street crime and crack epidemic.

There was a mosque on Manchester east of Woodward, but its now closed since the 1980s. When the plants closed and the new Dodge Main plant opened in 1980s some Arab families quickly moved to Hamtramck neighborhoods and remain to this day as long as the Dodge main plant opens.

Iranians are also NOT Arabic. They speak an Indo-European language, although many languages are spoken in Iran. Arabs are only a very small minority in Iran and traditionally Arabs and Iranians [[Persians) do not get along well.

Regarding Highland Park, in the 70s in addition to some Christian Arabs, there were some remaining Jews, and a few Armenians still there, almost all living west of Woodward. Mostly those groups spilled over from the Dexter/Davison area communities. Possibly some Poles/Ukranians on the SE side near Hamtramck were left. Even a few Romanians were in HP, primarily east of Woodward. And it might be that there were some Chinese immigrant descendants that had left the Cass Corridor area. Highland Park was still a fairly nice place until the mid/late 70s, especially closer to McNichols and west of Woodward.

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Originally Posted by kryptonite

Iranians are also NOT Arabic. They speak an Indo-European language, although many languages are spoken in Iran. Arabs are only a very small minority in Iran and traditionally Arabs and Iranians [[Persians) do not get along well.

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In the West, we sometimes consider all Muslims to be Arabs and conversely, all Arabs to be Muslim. This is far from the case. Iranians [[Persians) are not Arabs. They do not speak Arabic. Their common language is Farsi. They are, for the most part, Muslim, belonging to the Shiite branch [[the same branch as the majority of Iraqis). The Jewish community in Iran, while still large, has shrunk dramatically since the creation of Israel and then the 1979 revolution.