Today, thousands of activists and organizers from across the United States will gather in Detroit, Michigan for the second annual US Social Forum. Under the slogan “A new world is possible” organizers and activists who work on housing inequities, police brutality, immigration, education inequities, structural racism and sexual/gender injustice will “learn from each other’s experiences and struggles, share an analysis of the problems communities face, build relationships, and align with international brothers and sisters to strategize how to reclaim our world.”
A predominantly Black city, Detroit has a long history of police brutality, housing inequality and struggle. With the convening of such a gathering, we should remember events that transpired in this city over 65 years ago.
Known as the Race Riot of 1947 (click to see picture), the city of Detroit broke out in the largest U.S. riot immediately after WWII. Racial tension increased in Detroit during WWII when over 50,000 Black workers migrated from the south to Detroit to work in the automotive industry. The population surge caused a high homeless population and the city compensated by building low-income housing in white neighborhoods. White communities were outraged. Brutality, by the hand of the state, increased drastically.
In 1947, a brawl broke out between a white and black man in downtown Detroit. Igniting existing racial tensions, it resulted in a 24-hour riot and the deaths of 25 African -Americans and nine whites. Of the 25 African-Americans who died, 17 were killed by the police. Of the nine whites who died, none were killed by police. The riot came to a halt 24 hours later when the federal government sent 6,000 troops to Detroit.
Over twenty years later, Detroit was home to one of the most violent urban revolts in the 20th century – the Detroit Race Riot of 1967. According to Blackpast.org, “It came as an immediate response to police brutality but underlying conditions including segregated housing and schools and rising black unemployment helped drive the anger of the rioters.”
Police officers arrested 82 patrons in an unlicensed black neighborhood bar. As the police were taking patrons away in handcuffs, community members came out in the hundreds.
After four days of rioting, 800 State Police Officers, 8,000 National Guardsmen and 4,700 paratroopers were ordered to the city. In the five days and nights of the race riot, 33 blacks and 10 whites were killed, 1,189 were injured and over 7,200 people were arrested. Until the riots following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King in April 1968, the Detroit Race Riot stood as the largest urban uprising of the 1960s.
Over forty years later, Detroit is one of the poorest cities in the United States. Following the Race Riots of 1967, white flight hit Detroit as thousands of white families moved to the suburbs. Today, thousands of people will gather in Detroit, Michigan - home to two of our nation’s largest and most violent race riots - to talk and strategize about creating a world where people can live free from fear. James Baldwin, a black American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist said: “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
As we look towards new solutions for justice in 2010, we should keep Baldwin in mind and remember the struggles that have come before us.