Cass Technical High School

Cass Tech has recently made headlines, with 80 students from the Class of 2025 accepted to the University of Michigan. While this may seem remarkable to some, for Cass Technicians, this is the norm. For years, Cass Tech has produced students who have gone out into the world and achieved great things—students who have made both the school and the city proud.

So in this edition of Doctor Detroit Says, I want to take a moment to talk about another Cass Tech class that made us proud and made history: the Class of 1931.

Here are some of the proud graduates from 1931:

• Richard Austin graduated and later became the first Black certified public accountant in Michigan. In 1970, he became Michigan’s first—and to date, only—Black Secretary of State, serving until January 1995, making him the longest-serving Secretary of State in Michigan history.

  
  

• Cora M. Brown began her career as a social worker and then served as a policewoman in the Detroit Police Department’s Women’s Division for five years. She went on to attend Wayne University Law School, obtained her law degree, and passed the bar less than a month after graduating. In 1952, she was elected as the first Black woman to serve in the Michigan State Senate, where she served two terms and became a champion for civil rights.

  
  

• Ida Belle Dawson became a bookkeeper before marrying her classmate Richard Austin in 1939. She worked tirelessly alongside her husband and was a remarkable woman in her own right. She was the first Black district manager of the Girl Scouts of Southeast Michigan and a lifelong member of the Detroit Branch NAACP, the Booker T. Washington Business Association, the League of Women Voters, and the National Council of Negro Women. In 2009, she was honored as the Matriarch of the Michigan Democratic Party. Together with her husband, she established scholarship funds at Wayne State University.

  
  

• Teleford Duncan served during World War II as a warrant officer in the Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the Army Air Forces. He earned his commercial pilot’s license in 1944 and became a flight instructor the following year, making him the only Black commercial pilot and instructor in Detroit at that time. He later owned and operated Aero Training School at Detroit’s City Airport for 25 years.

  
  

• Elizabeth and Helen Enlow, sisters, graduated from the Detroit Conservatory of Music and later founded the Enlow School of Music and Dramatic Arts. Elizabeth composed operettas, and together with Helen and two other sisters, they taught piano, violin, cello, and dramatic arts.

  
  

• Mabel Rhodes became a nurse and answered the call to serve during World War II, becoming a Second Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps.

  
  

• Harry Riggs became a doctor and also served during World War II. He graduated from the Army Air Forces School of Aviation Medicine, became a flight surgeon, and was promoted to the rank of Captain.

  
  

• Paul Scaggs studied printing at Cass Tech. He began his career at the Detroit Tribune, a Black-owned newspaper, and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where he owned and operated his own publishing business.

  
  

• Marvin White broke racial barriers when he became one of the first Black firefighters in Detroit in 1938. After completing the fire academy, he and another Black firefighter faced discrimination and hostility from colleagues and residents alike. Despite this, they performed their duties with distinction, paving the way for those who followed.

  
  

  

  
  

Just like the Class of 1931, I believe the Class of 2025 will also have stories of greatness to tell. Congratulations to them—I can't wait to see what the future holds!