The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit

Sugrue ends his book with a discussion of the 1967 Detroit race riots. The riots began after police busted an illegal saloon in a large Black neighborhood. A crowd started throwing bottles and rocks at police. By morning, the crowd was 3,000 strong. The riot raged until 17,000 police officers, federal troops, and National Guardsmen squashed it five days later, leaving 43 dead and over 7,000 under arrest. Property damage and looting totaled tens of millions of dollars (259).

Sugrue compares the 1967 riots to those of 1943. Participants in the former were predominantly Black, while the latter involved equal numbers of Black and white rioters. Competition between Black and white Detroiters for jobs and housing sparked the 1943 riots, while the legacy of white flight and racial discrimination galvanized the 1967 protests. The lack of housing and economic opportunities spurred resentment among Black people with low incomes. Militancy grew among Black youths. The number of young adults unattached to the labor market increased steadily in the 1960s. By 1980, only half of the Black male population participated in Detroit’s formal job market. Persistent unemployment increased the gap between Black and white Detroiters. Racial segregation continued throughout the city. Civil-rights activists became frustrated at the slow pace of change, leading some to turn to Black Power organizations. A brief period of optimism emerged in the 1960s, after Detroit’s mayor successfully lobbied the federal government for funding from President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty legislation. However, investment in anti-poverty programs, including education and job training, could not undo the damage of deindustrialization and racial discrimination. Tensions grew over the 1960s, culminating in the 1967 riots.

Racial divisions translated into political divisiveness. Working- and lower-middle-class white people consistently supported conservative political candidates. White people continued fleeing the city in fear of racial integration. This fear and resentment had deep roots. Deprived of jobs because of decentralization and relocation, working-class white people turned their anger to government programs helping Black people, especially affirmative action. According to some scholars, the white backlash of the 1970s and 1980s occurred in large part because Democrats ignored the needs of the white working class. White discontent became a national political force, as evidenced by the rise of the so-called silent majority in the 1960s and the defection of white people from the Democratic Party. According to Sugrue, this antiliberalism is rooted in the events of the 1940s and 1950s.

Urban Transformation

Detroit’s decline continued into the 20th century’s last decades. More manufacturers left the city, taking with them blue-collar jobs. City officials attempted to attract new industries by clearing blight left by old industries. These efforts, however, did not rectify Detroit’s problems. In addition to unemployment, discrimination is still deeply entrenched in Detroit. The city also remains segregated by class and race. Unemployment and racism have devastated the urban core. Detroit’s crisis did not begin in 1967, as many claim. Rather, it is rooted in the deindustrialization process that began in the 1940s. Rehabilitating Detroit demands more rigorous efforts to address the joblessness, housing inequities, and workplace discrimination established in the postwar years.