In 1920 —already a bustling city of almost a million people— Detroit was the most technologically advanced and fastest growing city on the planet, thanks to the auto assembly line that was born there and had been booming there since the Model T was introduced in 1908.
By 1950, the population had swelled to two million, mostly with blacks fleeing crushing poverty and Jim Crow laws of the Deep South. But the influx of southern blacks was proving to be a double-edge sword. White GIs who had returned from WWII did not want to fight again for their jobs on the lines, nor did other blacks already there and fighting to keep the jobs they had. It became a urban battleground—survival of the most desperate.
By the ‘60s, bitterness and racial tensions had gripped the city and Detroit’s downtown population began to empty out as whites fled, blacks warred with each other, and the city core spun out of control.
By 1967 the city had earned the appalling epithet—Murder City USA. The highest murder rate in America for many years running,
Then, in the small hours of a searing Saturday night in July of 1967 it all exploded.
For four days Detroit burned.
Many saw the trouble coming. Grew up with it. One of those was my good friend Spider Jones. He got out alive—barely—and this is his story. Also Detroit’s story.
By 1950, the population had swelled to two million, mostly with blacks fleeing crushing poverty and Jim Crow laws of the Deep South. But the influx of southern blacks was proving to be a double-edge sword. White GIs who had returned from WWII did not want to fight again for their jobs on the lines, nor did other blacks already there and fighting to keep the jobs they had. It became a urban battleground—survival of the most desperate.
By the ‘60s, bitterness and racial tensions had gripped the city and Detroit’s downtown population began to empty out as whites fled, blacks warred with each other, and the city core spun out of control.
By 1967 the city had earned the appalling epithet—Murder City USA. The highest murder rate in America for many years running,
Then, in the small hours of a searing Saturday night in July of 1967 it all exploded.
For four days Detroit burned.
Many saw the trouble coming. Grew up with it. One of those was my good friend Spider Jones. He got out alive—barely—and this is his story. Also Detroit’s story.
