Avalon Housing’s Arbordale Apartments in Ann Arbor were renamed in honor of Bunyan Bryant, the late University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) professor and activist whose denial of an apartment at the complex in the early 1960s by the landlord at the time became a flashpoint in the local fight for fair housing.

During the renaming ceremony at the complex, which took place on October 24, Arbordale Apartments officially became the Bunyan Bryant Apartments. Among those in attendance were Bryant’s widow, fellow activist and former Ann Arbor City Councillor Jean Carlberg; his brother, Norman; his niece, Sherri; and his former SEAS colleagues, Professor Paul Mohai and Professor Emeritus Jim Crowfoot.

The ceremony also included a special honor for Carlberg: The community center at the complex was named the Jean Carlberg Community Center. 

Crowfoot said he ”was moved by Avalon Housing’s action to rename Arbordale Apartments based on Bunyan and Jean’s historic local work for housing and environmental justice. I learned so much from them. Recognizing them for their leadership again reminds me and others of the urgent need for ongoing actions to further social and environmental justice locally as well as nationally and internationally.”

Mohai, who began working with Bryant in the 1980s and “learned quickly” about his commitment to social and environmental justice,” added that “it was wonderful to see the early civil rights work he engaged in being recognized and celebrated by renaming in his honor the Ann Arbor apartment complex which denied him housing in the early 1960s. His lifetime work has not only made a significant contribution to the Ann Arbor community but to Michigan and the nation at large.”

Bryant was part of a group that successfully advocated for a fair housing ordinance in Ann Arbor in 1963, so when he was looking for an apartment the very next year, racial discrimination was not what he anticipated.

“When Bunyan applied to sublet an apartment at Arbordale Manor, he knew it was available and fully expected to be able to sublet it, because the ordinance was in place to prevent discrimination,” recalled Carlberg. “When he was told no, nothing was available, he knew that was wrong.”

Bryant, Carlberg and the Congress of Racial Equity (CORE), a nonviolent, direct action civil rights organization, set up a test—they separately sent a white woman, a white man, and a Black man to rent an apartment. The Black man was the only one denied a spot.

The activists brought the case to the city’s Human Rights Commission under its anti-discrimination housing ordinance, and it eventually went to the Michigan Supreme Court, helping pave the way for bans on housing discrimination across the state.

Avalon Housing, a nonprofit created in 1992 with the mission to end homelessness in Washtenaw County, took ownership of the apartments in 1998.

“We know that African American people still face housing discrimination, and that is one reason they are disproportionately represented in the homeless population. One of Avalon's goals has always been to work to expose and correct that history, and that's why recognizing Bunyan is so important to us,” said Michael Appel, one of Avalon’s co-founders and a real estate development staff person for the agency. 

“By honoring Dr. Bryant, we acknowledge the effort that was required to make housing discrimination illegal. And we also pledge to continue his lifelong work of addressing injustice—and there's no doubt we have more work to do.”

Bryant was the first Black faculty member at what was then the U-M School of Natural Resources (now SEAS). During his career in environmental studies, he helped transform the field to focus on environmental justice, to change the corporate and governmental policies which resulted in disproportionate harmful environmental impacts on poor and minority populations.

Carlberg said the incident at Arbordale reinforced Bryant’s dedication to social justice: “The blatant discrimination was not academic, it was personal; he had worked hard to go to college, to get a degree in social work to help his community and be a productive community member, and yet the rental community believed it had a right to discriminate. The experience became part of his efforts to organize, and to develop new and effective strategies to eliminate discrimination in all its forms.”

U-M held the mortgage to Arbordale Manor at the time, and Carlberg said they were told by university officials that nothing could be done. “Bunyan described that situation as a double insult. He paid tuition to U-M, and U-M was using his dollars to buy a mortgage and then discriminate against him,” Carlberg noted.

Avalon Apartments’ name change to the Bunyan Bryant Apartments comes after consultation with residents, the Avalon Board of Directors, and Carlberg. Bryant died in March 2024 at the age of 89, but knew about plans for the renaming before his death. Carlberg said he was “totally surprised and very gratified” to hear about the renaming proposal.

“Progress has been made as it relates to housing discrimination, but the fight for housing justice is far from over, locally or nationally,” said Avalon Executive Director Aaron Cooper. “We want everyone who passes by the Bunyan Bryant Apartments to know we here at Avalon honor his struggle for equality in housing, which we consider a human right for all.”

In Memoriam: Bunyan Bryant (1935-2024)

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