Detroit on the Eve of the Civil Rights Movement
In 1960, African American Detroiters began exerting their rights as full members of Detroit society.1960 - Detroit Population: Total: 1,670,144
Black: 482,229 (28.9% of the total)
Suburbanization in the 1950s caused Detroit to become a largely African American City.
White Flight
"White flight" is a term that describes the migration of white populations from urban to suburban settings from 1950-1960 in the United States. Contributing factors to Detroit's epidemic of "white flight" included the establishment of the national interstate system in 1956, the Detroit race riots of the 1960s, and
Detroit March for Freedom: June 24th, 1963
Reverend C. L. Franklin, the chairman of the Detroit Council for Human Rights organized the Detroit "Walk to Freedom." It was proclaimed as the country's largest civil rights event to date. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was chosen as a guest speaker, and led the march along Woodward Avenue. Many important Detroiters such as John Swainson, who was the governor of Michigan from 1961-1962, marched along with King and over 125,000 citizens that day. Once the marchers reached the Cobo Arena, 25,000 of them remained to hear Dr. King give his "I Have a Dream..." speech, two months before he would deliver it in Washington, D.C.
Timeline of Detroiters: 1965-
1965
Malcom X is assassinated.
Viola Liuzzo, a Detroit housewife and civil rights activist, is assassinated in an ambush from a car near Selma, Alabama, following the Selma-to-Montgomery, Alabama Civil Rights March, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Charles Wright, Ob/Gyn, opens the International Afro-American Museum in part of his office on West Grand Boulevard.
August 6 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law.
1966
Judge Wade H. McCree accepts an appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from President Lyndon B. Johnson.
African-American Detroiters Myron Wahls and Nathan Conyers travel to the South to represent African Americans who are arrested after sit-ins, marches and other civil rights demonstrations.
April 7, 8 - Detroit Northern High School students, led by Judy Walder, Michael Batchelor, and 12th grade honor student Charles Coding, organize a demonstration and walk-out after the censorship of Coding's editorial in the student press, which criticized what he considered to be the inferior education offered at Northern.
April 20 - Northern Students resume their walkout when the School Board returns Principal Carty to duty. They open a "Freedom School" at St. Joseph's Episcopal Church with the support of Rector David Gracie and staffed by Wayne State University professors.
April 22 - Eastern High School students join Northern students in a sympathy walkout.
April 26 - Northern High School students vote to return to class, one day before a citywide student boycott is to take place. The students have successfully raised awareness on education issues in the city.
November - Geraldine Bledsoe Ford is elected to Detroit Recorder's Court and is the first African-American woman judge in Michigan.
1967
August 18 - The Michigan State Police, established in 1914, swear in the first African-American trooper in the state.
December 31 - The Detroit "open housing" ordinance, introduced by Councilman Nicholas Hood, is blocked by over one-hundred thousand petition signatures to force a ballot measure. (Subsequently, U.S. District Court Judge Talbot Smith strikes the measure as out of step with federal law.)
1968 April 5 - Several civil disturbances erupt in Detroit in the wake of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. African-American students at Detroit Cooley High School walk out in protest and later they are joined by students from twenty other Detroit schools and by African-American workers at the Chrysler Jefferson Avenue plant.
Tom Turner, president of the Detroit Chapter of the NAACP, is elected the first African-American president of the local AFL-CIO.
Willie Stamps, a Detroit Edison janitor, wins a division chairmanship in Local 223 of Utility Workers of America and is its first African-American officer.1969 April 4 - Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while in town to support striking African-American garbage workers.
March 29 - Members of the Republic of New Africa, a radical organization advocating African-American autonomy, including a separate state for African Americans, engage in a shoot-out with Detroit police officers, killing one officer during a meeting at the New Bethel Baptist Church. Police arrest 143 men, women and children.
March 30 - Detroit Recorders Court Judge George W. Crockett, Jr., as presiding judge of the day, orders the release of the prisoners in the New Bethel Baptist Church incident of the day before.
The DodgeRevolutionary Union Movement forms a coalition called the League of Revolutionary Black Workers to continue speading the revolutionary union movement in Detroit and beyond.
November - Wayne County sheriff, Roman S. Gribbs narrowly defeats Wayne County auditor, Richard Austin, in a close mayoral election. Austin is the first African American to seriously challenge a white candidate for mayor of Detroit.
1970 - Detroit Population: Total: 1,511,482
African American: 660,428 (44.5%)1970 Four Detroit School Board members are recalled for supporting a desegregation plan targeting eleven Detroit high schools. Detroit Judge Edward F. Bell is elected president of the National Bar Association, the nation-wide African-American lawyers guild.
1971 The Detroit Police Department forms STRESS, (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets) an undercover decoy unit formed to address street crime. However, due to its use of questionable tactics, in two and a half years, its members kills 22 people, all except one is African American.
1973 November - State Senator Coleman A. Young is elected the first African American mayor of Detroit, defeating Police Cheif John Nichols.
November - Erma Henderson is the first African-American woman elected to the Detroit City Council.
1974 First Independence National Bank, an African-American institution, opens for business. Four historically African-American hospitals, Burton Mercy , Trumbul General, Boulevard General and DelRay General merge to become Southwest General Hospital.
1975 September - WGPR-TV Channel 62 signs on the air from its East Jefferson Avenue studio as the first African-American-owned television station in the United States.
1976 Robert Hayden, born in Detroit as Asa Bundy Sheffey, becomes the first African American named Poet Laureate of the United States.
William Hart is appointed the first African-American chief of police for Detroit.
1977 Judge Wade H. McCree, Jr. accepts the appointment as solicitor general of the United States from President Jimmy Carter.
Dr. Marjorie Peebles-Meyers is named chief physician at Ford Motor Company World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. She will hold the post until 1985.
November - Erma Henderson is the first woman and first the African American elected as Detroit City Council president. The post goes to the top vote-getter in the non partisan, at-large race.
November In the first mayoral race where both contestants are African American, Mayor Coleman A. Young defeats his most serious challenger to office, Councilman Ernest Browne Jr.
1978 Special Assistant Attorney General Julian Abele Cook, Jr., accepts an appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Michigan from President Jimmy Carter.
1979 Anna Diggs Taylor, former assistant prosecutor for Wayne County and the United States attorney's office, accepts an appointment to the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan from President Jimmy Carter.
1980 - Detroit Population: Total: 1,203,339
African American: 777,916 (63% of the total)
1980 July - The Republican National Committee holds its convention in Detroit and nominates Ronald W. Reagan as its candidate for president of the United States. Mayor Coleman A. Young gives a welcome address at the opening plenary session.
November 4 - Former Detroit Recorders Court Judge George W. Crockett, Jr. is elected to U.S. Congress to fill the 13th District seat vacated by Charles Diggs, Jr.'s resignation.
Common Pleas Court Judge Lucile Alexander Watts is elected as the first African-American woman judge of the Wayne County Circuit Court.
Malcom X is assassinated.
Viola Liuzzo, a Detroit housewife and civil rights activist, is assassinated in an ambush from a car near Selma, Alabama, following the Selma-to-Montgomery, Alabama Civil Rights March, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Charles Wright, Ob/Gyn, opens the International Afro-American Museum in part of his office on West Grand Boulevard.
August 6 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law.
1966
Judge Wade H. McCree accepts an appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from President Lyndon B. Johnson.
African-American Detroiters Myron Wahls and Nathan Conyers travel to the South to represent African Americans who are arrested after sit-ins, marches and other civil rights demonstrations.
April 7, 8 - Detroit Northern High School students, led by Judy Walder, Michael Batchelor, and 12th grade honor student Charles Coding, organize a demonstration and walk-out after the censorship of Coding's editorial in the student press, which criticized what he considered to be the inferior education offered at Northern.
April 20 - Northern Students resume their walkout when the School Board returns Principal Carty to duty. They open a "Freedom School" at St. Joseph's Episcopal Church with the support of Rector David Gracie and staffed by Wayne State University professors.
April 22 - Eastern High School students join Northern students in a sympathy walkout.
April 26 - Northern High School students vote to return to class, one day before a citywide student boycott is to take place. The students have successfully raised awareness on education issues in the city.
November - Geraldine Bledsoe Ford is elected to Detroit Recorder's Court and is the first African-American woman judge in Michigan.
1967
August 18 - The Michigan State Police, established in 1914, swear in the first African-American trooper in the state.
December 31 - The Detroit "open housing" ordinance, introduced by Councilman Nicholas Hood, is blocked by over one-hundred thousand petition signatures to force a ballot measure. (Subsequently, U.S. District Court Judge Talbot Smith strikes the measure as out of step with federal law.)
1968 April 5 - Several civil disturbances erupt in Detroit in the wake of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. African-American students at Detroit Cooley High School walk out in protest and later they are joined by students from twenty other Detroit schools and by African-American workers at the Chrysler Jefferson Avenue plant.
Tom Turner, president of the Detroit Chapter of the NAACP, is elected the first African-American president of the local AFL-CIO.
Willie Stamps, a Detroit Edison janitor, wins a division chairmanship in Local 223 of Utility Workers of America and is its first African-American officer.1969 April 4 - Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while in town to support striking African-American garbage workers.
March 29 - Members of the Republic of New Africa, a radical organization advocating African-American autonomy, including a separate state for African Americans, engage in a shoot-out with Detroit police officers, killing one officer during a meeting at the New Bethel Baptist Church. Police arrest 143 men, women and children.
March 30 - Detroit Recorders Court Judge George W. Crockett, Jr., as presiding judge of the day, orders the release of the prisoners in the New Bethel Baptist Church incident of the day before.
The DodgeRevolutionary Union Movement forms a coalition called the League of Revolutionary Black Workers to continue speading the revolutionary union movement in Detroit and beyond.
November - Wayne County sheriff, Roman S. Gribbs narrowly defeats Wayne County auditor, Richard Austin, in a close mayoral election. Austin is the first African American to seriously challenge a white candidate for mayor of Detroit.
1970 - Detroit Population: Total: 1,511,482
African American: 660,428 (44.5%)1970 Four Detroit School Board members are recalled for supporting a desegregation plan targeting eleven Detroit high schools. Detroit Judge Edward F. Bell is elected president of the National Bar Association, the nation-wide African-American lawyers guild.
1971 The Detroit Police Department forms STRESS, (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets) an undercover decoy unit formed to address street crime. However, due to its use of questionable tactics, in two and a half years, its members kills 22 people, all except one is African American.
1973 November - State Senator Coleman A. Young is elected the first African American mayor of Detroit, defeating Police Cheif John Nichols.
November - Erma Henderson is the first African-American woman elected to the Detroit City Council.
1974 First Independence National Bank, an African-American institution, opens for business. Four historically African-American hospitals, Burton Mercy , Trumbul General, Boulevard General and DelRay General merge to become Southwest General Hospital.
1975 September - WGPR-TV Channel 62 signs on the air from its East Jefferson Avenue studio as the first African-American-owned television station in the United States.
1976 Robert Hayden, born in Detroit as Asa Bundy Sheffey, becomes the first African American named Poet Laureate of the United States.
William Hart is appointed the first African-American chief of police for Detroit.
1977 Judge Wade H. McCree, Jr. accepts the appointment as solicitor general of the United States from President Jimmy Carter.
Dr. Marjorie Peebles-Meyers is named chief physician at Ford Motor Company World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. She will hold the post until 1985.
November - Erma Henderson is the first woman and first the African American elected as Detroit City Council president. The post goes to the top vote-getter in the non partisan, at-large race.
November In the first mayoral race where both contestants are African American, Mayor Coleman A. Young defeats his most serious challenger to office, Councilman Ernest Browne Jr.
1978 Special Assistant Attorney General Julian Abele Cook, Jr., accepts an appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Michigan from President Jimmy Carter.
1979 Anna Diggs Taylor, former assistant prosecutor for Wayne County and the United States attorney's office, accepts an appointment to the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan from President Jimmy Carter.
1980 - Detroit Population: Total: 1,203,339
African American: 777,916 (63% of the total)
1980 July - The Republican National Committee holds its convention in Detroit and nominates Ronald W. Reagan as its candidate for president of the United States. Mayor Coleman A. Young gives a welcome address at the opening plenary session.
November 4 - Former Detroit Recorders Court Judge George W. Crockett, Jr. is elected to U.S. Congress to fill the 13th District seat vacated by Charles Diggs, Jr.'s resignation.
Common Pleas Court Judge Lucile Alexander Watts is elected as the first African-American woman judge of the Wayne County Circuit Court.
The Riots of 1967
Causes of the Detroit Riot:
WHAT HAPPENED:
The Detroit Riot of 1967 began when police vice squad officers executed a raid on an after hours drinking club or “blind pig” in a predominantly black neighborhoods located at Twelfth Street and Clairmount Avenue. They were expecting to round up a few patrons, but instead found 82 people inside holding a party for two returning Vietnam veterans. Yet, the officers attempted to arrest everyone who was on the scene. While the police awaited a “clean-up crew” to transport the arrestees, a crowd gathered around the establishment in protest. After the last police car left, a small group of men who were “confused and upset because they were kicked out of the only place they had to go” lifted up the bars of an adjacent clothing store and broke the windows. From this point of origin, further reports of vandalism diffused. Looting and fires spread through the Northwest side of Detroit, then crossed over to the East Side. Within 48 hours, the National Guard was mobilized, to be followed by the 82nd airborne on the riot’s fourth day. As police and military troops sought to regain control of the city, violence escalated. At the conclusion of 5 days of rioting, 43 people lay dead, 1189 injured and over 7000 people had been arrested.
- Housing
- Police Brutality
- "Urban Renewal" at the Cost of Historic Black Neighborhoods
- Economic Disparity between White and Black Populations
- Black Militancy
- Demographic Changes/White Flight
WHAT HAPPENED:
The Detroit Riot of 1967 began when police vice squad officers executed a raid on an after hours drinking club or “blind pig” in a predominantly black neighborhoods located at Twelfth Street and Clairmount Avenue. They were expecting to round up a few patrons, but instead found 82 people inside holding a party for two returning Vietnam veterans. Yet, the officers attempted to arrest everyone who was on the scene. While the police awaited a “clean-up crew” to transport the arrestees, a crowd gathered around the establishment in protest. After the last police car left, a small group of men who were “confused and upset because they were kicked out of the only place they had to go” lifted up the bars of an adjacent clothing store and broke the windows. From this point of origin, further reports of vandalism diffused. Looting and fires spread through the Northwest side of Detroit, then crossed over to the East Side. Within 48 hours, the National Guard was mobilized, to be followed by the 82nd airborne on the riot’s fourth day. As police and military troops sought to regain control of the city, violence escalated. At the conclusion of 5 days of rioting, 43 people lay dead, 1189 injured and over 7000 people had been arrested.
New Detroit Incorporated
New Detroit Incorporated was established in response to the Riots of 1967. After the riots were over, businessman Joseph L. Hudson, Jr. founded the coalition with the goal of determining what caused the 1967 riots, what needed to change, and how to take action. The New Detroit Coalition is still operating today and is comprised of prominent city business, civic, grassroots, and religious leaders come together to promote peace and cooperation in the city.
The original committee is pictured to the left.
The original committee is pictured to the left.
The Black Nationalist Church Movement
In 1967, following the tragedy of the 1967 riots, Reverend Alber Cleage, Jr. founded the Black Christian Nationalist (BCN) church movement in Detroit. The BCN is a Christian civil rights and cultural organization with a militant agenda akin to the Black Power movements around the United States. In 1968, following a year of racial unrest in Detroit, Cleage published The Black Messiah, which detailed his vision of Jesus as a black revolutionary leader. In 1972, he published his second book, Black Christian Nationalism, and inaugurated the Black Christian Nationalist Movement as a separate denomination. The name was later changed to the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church (PAOCC), and Cleage changed his own name to Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, meaning "liberator, holy man, savior of the nation" in Swahili. The PAOCC includes churches in Atlanta, GA, and Houston, TX, several cultural centers, bookstores, community service centers, and a working farm.
The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM)
In 1969, Black workers were still victims of exclusion from white worker Unions in the auto industry of Detroit. DRUM is made up of black workers at the Hamtramck Assembly plant, Dodge Main, of the Chrysler Corporation. DRUM was formed in 1968 in the aftermath of a wildcat strike of black workers at the Hamtramck plant. At the time, racism permeated the Dodge plant, and the formation of racist unions such as the Chrysler Revolutionary Union (an all-white union) was quite common. DRUM demands, in addition to the specific issues of speedup, discrimination, etc., included black control of the local union and black control of Management, from the lowest to the highest levels.
Dr. King's "I Have a Dream..." Speech in Cobo Arena
Fun Fact
Parks and her husband moved to Detroit in 1957. She worked for U.S. Congressman John F. Conyers Jr. from 1965 until 1988, and in 1987, along with Mrs. Elaine Eason Steele, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development in honor of Raymond Parks. The institution's purpose is to motivate and direct youth to achieve their highest potential.
Detroit from 1980 to 2000
The 1980 Republican National Committee held in Detroit nominated Ronald Regan to be the republican presidential candidate.
By 1990, 73% of Detroit's population was African American so it is reasonable to expect so much African American representation in Detroit politics. There were also many successful African Americans in business in Detroit; for example, Mel Far of Mel Far Automotive based out of Detroit became the top grossing African-American owned business in 1999.
Despite the majority of Detroit being African American, by 1994, Detroit still had "the highest level of between-district segregation of all metro areas in the country." (Coltfelter) Enrollment in schools in general also declined during this period. From 1986 to 2000, the Detroit school system only grew by 2.8% while education systems in cities such as New York and Los Angeles were growing by 12.7 and 22.8%, respectively. This is partly due to many people moving away from Detroit when the steel and automotive industry became less centralized in north-west states. More white people moved away from the city than black people so the black population grew percentage-wise during this time.
Crime rates grew steadily during this time period but there is not a specific demographic that made up a significant majority of the prison population. Prisons were approximately 45% white, and 53% black; the other 2% were other races.
By 1990, 73% of Detroit's population was African American so it is reasonable to expect so much African American representation in Detroit politics. There were also many successful African Americans in business in Detroit; for example, Mel Far of Mel Far Automotive based out of Detroit became the top grossing African-American owned business in 1999.
Despite the majority of Detroit being African American, by 1994, Detroit still had "the highest level of between-district segregation of all metro areas in the country." (Coltfelter) Enrollment in schools in general also declined during this period. From 1986 to 2000, the Detroit school system only grew by 2.8% while education systems in cities such as New York and Los Angeles were growing by 12.7 and 22.8%, respectively. This is partly due to many people moving away from Detroit when the steel and automotive industry became less centralized in north-west states. More white people moved away from the city than black people so the black population grew percentage-wise during this time.
Crime rates grew steadily during this time period but there is not a specific demographic that made up a significant majority of the prison population. Prisons were approximately 45% white, and 53% black; the other 2% were other races.
Coleman Young
In 1981, Coleman Young, the first African American mayor of Detroit, is elected to his third term. He served as mayor for 20 years.
Coleman Young was extremely influential in leading Detroit through massive job loss and racial tensions in the 70s and 80s.
Coleman Young was extremely influential in leading Detroit through massive job loss and racial tensions in the 70s and 80s.
Dennis Archer
Dennis Archer, also African America, took over as mayor of Detroit after Coleman Young refused to run for a fourth term due to medical complications.
Dennis Archer was also very influential in Detroit and is known for reviving Detroit from the falling employment rate that was occurring during the 90s.
He was also the first person of color to become president of the American Bar Association.
Dennis Archer was also very influential in Detroit and is known for reviving Detroit from the falling employment rate that was occurring during the 90s.
He was also the first person of color to become president of the American Bar Association.
Detroit NAACP
Since it's INCEPTION in in 1912, the Detroit branch of the NAACP has always been among the largest and most active branches. The 1963 Freedom March was one of the most successful event of NAACP history and it was organized by the Detroit branch. In 1990, Detroit's NAACP raised 1 million dollars in a single fund-raising event--the most funds raised at a single event in NAACP history.
Detroit's NAACP took a case to the US Attorney Office in the the 90s addressing police brutality in the city. The case resulted in federal investigations of the Detroit Police Department to ensure the law was being enforced justly.
Detroit's NAACP took a case to the US Attorney Office in the the 90s addressing police brutality in the city. The case resulted in federal investigations of the Detroit Police Department to ensure the law was being enforced justly.