The Honorable Stephen J. Roth presided over the landmark school desegregation case Bradley v. Milliken in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division from 1970 until his death in 1974. Roth ruled that the Detroit Public School system was guilty of de jure segregation and ordered the implementation of an inter-district metropolitan busing plan to achieve integration. The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which declared Roth’s remedy to be impermissible and emphasized local control of schools in its July 1974 decision (Milliken v. Bradley 418 U.S. 717). The case files include trial materials (pleadings, desegregation plans, court transcripts, etc.), appellate materials, opinions and orders, correspondence, and clippings.
The Stephen J. Roth Bradley v. Milliken case files provide original source materials from one of the most contentious and influential desegregation cases in our nation's history. In addition to transcripts, court documents, and rulings, the collection permits scholar and citizen alike the opportunity to better understand Roth's conclusions and rulings with its rich trove of annotated briefs, personal law notes, manuscript drafts of opinions, and personal correspondence. Numerous secondary sources, including news clippings, appellate and Supreme Court decisions, and reports and journals consulted by Roth offer a rich context in which to understand the significance of the case in the history of Michigan and the nation as a whole. The Bradley v. Milliken case files consist of one series divided into seven subseries; the present arrangement reflects the order in which the materials were received from John Runyan, a former law clerk of Judge Roth's. Relevant materials have been added to case files over the years and this accumulation accounts for materials extant from 1975-1976.