Today marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of Detroit's darkest 36 hours. Over a thousand injuries, 43 dead (33 black, most killed by police or National Guard, one 4-year-old girl included), and a city that never quite recovered add up to what we have today: buildings that were never repaired and a similar fate for race relations.
In some ways, the city never really recovered from the 1943 riots that stemmed from the desegregation of housing projects built for war workers, and tensions simmered for 20 more years. Police brutality, urban "renewal" projects that destroyed whole neighborhoods, and the overall anxiety of the civil rights era all built up and finally culminated in an ill-advised raid on an after hours bar hosting a Vietnam homecoming party.
A day and a half later, it looked like the apocalypse hit, and in some ways we're still living in a post-apocalyptic world here. It's hard to have faith most of the time, but let's hope that the slow, one-step-forward two-step-back progress can continue or even strengthen.
In some ways, the city never really recovered from the 1943 riots that stemmed from the desegregation of housing projects built for war workers, and tensions simmered for 20 more years. Police brutality, urban "renewal" projects that destroyed whole neighborhoods, and the overall anxiety of the civil rights era all built up and finally culminated in an ill-advised raid on an after hours bar hosting a Vietnam homecoming party.
A day and a half later, it looked like the apocalypse hit, and in some ways we're still living in a post-apocalyptic world here. It's hard to have faith most of the time, but let's hope that the slow, one-step-forward two-step-back progress can continue or even strengthen.
